Strike them out: Mark Twain on adjectivesIn Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain cautions us on using adjectives: "As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out."
Clifton Fadiman warns us too: "The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech."
Adjectives modify nouns. In the examples ......
Hyphens and Compound AdjectivesTake a noun, any noun, and stick two adjectives in front of it. Do you need to connect them with a hyphen? Or can you simply leave them alone?
The answer is "depends." More accurately, it depends on what they’re doing to the noun, and what they’re doing ......