A similar alternation is found in compound adjectives such as well intentioned. When used predicatively (i.e. after the verb), such adjectives are unhyphenated, but when used attributively (i.e. before the noun), they are hyphenated: his remarks were well intentioned but a
A general rule governing verb compounds means that, where a noun compound is two words (e.g. beta test), any verb derived from it is normally hyphenated (to
Phrasal verbs such as ‘take off’, ‘take over’, and ‘set up’ are not hyphenated, but nouns formed from phrasal verbs are hyphenated, or, increasingly, written as one word: the plane accelerated for
Inflection
Compared with other European languages, English has comparatively few inflections, and those that exist are remarkably regular. We add an
Occasionally, a difficulty arises: for example, a single consonant after a short stressed vowel is doubled before adding
In all such cases, guidance is given in the Oxford Dictionary of English. The main areas covered are outlined below.
Verbs
The following forms are regarded as regular and are therefore not shown in the dictionary:
•third person singular present forms adding
•past tenses and past participles dropping a final silent e and adding
•present participles dropping a final silent e and adding
Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:
•verbs which inflect by doubling a consonant, e.g. bat → batting, batted
•verbs ending in
•verbs in which past tense and past participle do not follow the regular
•present participles which add
Nouns
Plurals formed by adding
Other plural forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:
•nouns ending in
•nouns ending in
•nouns ending in
•nouns with more than one plural form, e.g. storey → storeys or stories
•nouns with plurals showing a change in the stem, e.g. foot → feet
•nouns with plurals unchanged from the singular form, e.g. sheep → sheep
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