[Framers] Grammar, now with hyphens!

[Lynne A. Price]

Doug,
    Your examples show compound adjectives that modify "bike". Most of 
them should be hyphenated. The exception is "multi-gear". "Multi" is a 
prefix rather than a word by itself so "multigear" does not require a 
hyphen.
    You didn't ask, but as far as spelling out the number of gears as 
opposed to using Arabic numerals, I would probably use the words rather 
than numerals, depending on context. If you are writing something like a 
catalog for a bicycle shop or the assembly directions for a new bicycle, 
I would probably follow existing conventions (such as the previous 
version of the catalog). If different manufacturers use different 
conventions, I'd probably use each manufacturer's names. If company A 
sells a 12-gear bike and company B sells a twelve-gear bike, a purchaser 
may have trouble finding information on each unless a store's catalog 
identifies each product the way its manufacturer does.
     --Lynne

On 8/20/2020 11:39 AM, Doug wrote:
> I've seen these used both ways, so I'd like some fresh input:  which of the
> following are correct, and why?
>
> single gear bike
> four gear bike
> ten gear bike
> 12-gear bike
> 20-gear bike
> multi-gear bike
> fixed gear bike


-- 
Lynne A. Price
Text Structure Consulting, Inc.
Specializing in structured FrameMaker consulting, application development, and training
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