Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

Can anyone tell me if the following sentences are written correctly or not?

It is as tall as a 10- or 20-story building. (Are 2 hyphens required here?)

It is as tall as a ten or twenty-story building. (Is just 1 hyphen correct here?)


I've checked Michael Swan's books, but they don't offer any help on this. I found the following online, but I think it's a bit different from my sentences in question.

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Oxford online dictionary

Hyphens are also used to stand for a common second element in all but the last word of a list, e.g.:

You may see a yield that is two-, three-, or fourfold.
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Thanks for any help you can offer.

Happy New Year!

[melirae1976]

You need two hyphens on both versions of that sentence. It's called a suspensive* hyphen, which is used when the first, second, etc. parts of of a compound are separated from the word it should be joined to in order to form meaning.

*sometimes it is also called a hanging hyphen

[raewon]

Thank you so much for your informative response. And now I know what it's called - just hope I won't forget it.