Sharp PW-E500 operation manual Inflection, Verbs, Nouns

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 well-intentioned remark.

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 beta-test:the system was beta-tested). Similarly, verbal nouns and adjectives are more often hyphenated than ordinary noun or adjective compounds (e.g. glass- making, nation-building).

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 take-off; a hostile takeover; he didn’t die, it was a set-up. There is an increasing tendency to hyphenate the verb form as well (food available to take-away) but this is not good writing style and should be avoided.

Inflection

Compared with other European languages, English has comparatively few inflections, and those that exist are remarkably regular. We add an -sto most nouns to make a plural; we add -edto most verbs to make a past tense or a past participle, and -ingto make a present participle.

Occasionally, a difficulty arises: for example, a single consonant after a short stressed vowel is doubled before adding -edor -ing(hum, hums, humming, hummed). In addition, words borrowed from other languages generally bring their foreign inflections with them, causing problems for English speakers who are not proficient in those languages.

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 -sto the stem (or -esto stems ending in -s, -x, -z, -sh, or soft -ch), e.g. find → finds or change → changes

•past tenses and past participles dropping a final silent e and adding -edto the stem, e.g. change → changed or dance → danced

•present participles dropping a final silent e and adding -ingto the stem, e.g. change → changing or dance → dancing

Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:

•verbs which inflect by doubling a consonant, e.g. bat → batting, batted

•verbs ending in -ywhich inflect by changing -yto -i, e.g. try → tries, tried

•verbs in which past tense and past participle do not follow the regular -edpattern, e.g. feel → past and past participle felt; awake → past awoke; past participle awoken

•present participles which add -ingbut retain a final e (in order to make clear that the pronunciation of g remains soft), e.g. singe → singeing

Nouns

Plurals formed by adding -s(or -eswhen they end in -s, -x, -z, -sh, or soft -ch) are regarded as regular and are not shown.

Other plural forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:

•nouns ending in -ior -o, e.g. agouti → agoutis; albino → albinos

•nouns ending in -a,-um, or -uswhich are or appear to be Latinate forms, e.g. alumna → alumnae; spectrum → spectra; alveolus → alveoli

•nouns ending in -y, e.g. fly → flies

•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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