Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. (What a pretty house! She is tall!)
Adverbs modify verbs (She types quickly), adjectives (She is extremely tall) or other adverbs (Please type more quickly).
I realize this kind of looks like a no-smoking sign, but you get the idea
When an adverb modifies an adjective (e.g. “she is extremely tall,” no hyphen is necessary. I see many authors make this error in their book descriptions and personal bios. For example:
A good way to tell that a hyphen isn’t necessary is to remove the adjective and leave the adverb, then see if the sentence still makes sense. For example, do these sound correct to you?
The above sentences don’t make sense because once we remove the adjectives “functional,” “active” and “trained,” the adverbs “fully,” “currently”and “highly” aren’t modifying anything.
Note: when two words are used to modify (or relate to) the same word in what is called compound modifier, a hyphen clarifies that they are both referring to that word and not to each other. For example:
I know grammar terminology is a foreign language to many people, so if you’re still confused about whether or not to use a hyphen when you have an adverb followed by an adjective, try removing the adjective. If the sentence doesn’t work without it, no hyphen is necessary.
-Maria
This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2015 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
