Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have a question about the current usage of "free time".

I'd use it like "What do you do in your free time?" (noun) but how about

"Tennis is my favorite free time activity."

I wouldn't use it in this way, but I'm wondering if it's acceptable or not.
If it is, then wouldn't it be "free-time"?

Thanks in advance for your opinion.

[edwardcatflap]

It seems ok to me but when would you ever say it? You'd say 'I like tennis' or 'I play tennis' or 'my favourite sport is tennis' . I certainly wouldn't teach it and if a student said that to me I'd tell them it was gramatically correct but native speakers don't talk that way.

[lifeinkorea]

I would say "Playing tennis is my favorite free time activity" if I had to follow the pattern.

As for the hyphen, my understanding is that in British English they use hyphens more than Americans. A space then would be accepted equally. What gets me confused often is when can you join them into one word and when do they need to be split with either a space or hyphen.

I just put down what looks good. For example, do you write "afterschool", "after-school", or "after school"?

[raewon]

Thanks for both replies.

I use "after school" (What are you going to do after school?)

and "after-school" (Are you in any after-school clubs?)

I'm not sure I've ever used "afterschool".

My dictionary is fairly useless when it comes to situations like these.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Sadly, the hyphen is a dying punctuation mark. I assume it is the result of the incredibly lazy generation which doesn't want to use their little finger on the right hand. I suppose it's busy doing something else.