High School

Which words need to be connected by a hyphen in the passage?

A. great-uncle, amazing
B. beautiful, Mexico City
C. amazing, villa
D. beautiful, Mexico City, amazing

Answer :

Final answer:

In English, the words 'great-uncle' and 'amazing' should be hyphenated when 'great-uncle' is a compound noun and 'amazing' is part of a phrase used as an adjective before a noun, such as in 'amazing-villa.' The correct option is a.

Explanation:

The passage in question requires the use of hyphens in certain situations. When certain kinds of phrases are used as adjectives in front of nouns, they should typically be hyphenated to clarify that they function as a single idea. For example:

In the sample sentence 'The groom danced with his new mother-in-law,' the phrase 'mother-in-law' is correctly hyphenated because it is a standard compound noun.

In the sentence 'It was a spectacular, fun-filled day for everyone,' the adjective phrase 'fun-filled' is hyphenated to show that the fun fills the day, so it functions as one adjective in front of the noun 'day.'

Based on these examples, the words that need to be hyphenated in the given passage are 'great-uncle' when it is used as a compound noun (referring to a specific familial relationship) and 'amazing' if it is part of a phrase acting as an adjective before a noun (such as 'amazing-villa' if the villa’s amazing nature is being emphasized).

The proper choice, considering standard English grammar for hyphens in compound adjectives and nouns, would be a. 'great-uncle, amazing,' if and only if 'amazing' precedes a noun without being separated by a comma. The correct option is a.