hyphenating compound words (was: Complaint)

["Adam H. Kerman" <ahk @ chinet . chinet . com>]

>From: Sam Brooks <sbrooks@earthlink.net>
>Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 13:28:00 -0800 (PST)

>Does anal retentive have a hyphen?

Compound words have hyphens when used as adjectives before nouns. The purpose
of the hyphen is to tell you where to place the stress and to indicate that the
first word modifies the second, rather than the third.

Compare "two-thirds vote" and "two thirds of the voters".