<p>Hi,
Which is more correct? </p>
<p>4-hour or four-hour or four hour.</p>
<p>I’ve googled and see all different versions but not sure which is more correct. Thanks for you help!</p>
<p>Have you been doing this for hours?</p>
<p>I am by no means a grammar expert!</p>
<p>My feeling is to use four-hour.
I shy away from using numerals in formal writing.
Also, I believe there should be a hyphen. </p>
<p>I tested my gut feeling by trying two sentences on Word and doing a spelling/grammar check and one had the hyphen and one did not and the hyphen was the correct usage. I didn’t try the numeral but in the case of the numeral version, it would likely be 4-hour with a hyphen. Again, if a formal piece of writing, I write out numbers using words.</p>
<p>Great lakes mom, What do you mean? it’s not for hours, it’s 4-hour time chunk.</p>
<p>Soozievt, thank you. I just want to confirm what I’m reading is correct.</p>
<p>hindoo, thank you. I learn something new everyday.</p>
<p>You need the hyphen. As to whether you spell out the number or use the numeral, it depends on whose style you’re going by. The publication I write for insists that we write out all numbers up to and including “ten,” after which we use the numerals (“11,” etc.).</p>
<p>Great Lakes Mom:</p>
<p>ROTFL!</p>
<p>It is a four-hour exercise. It is to be done over four hours, though some may do it for hours. Using the numeral is a short-cut, but it won’t reduce the time from four to three hours.</p>
<p>marite is correct… it depends on the context of the words in the sentence. Also, NEVER begin a sentence with the numeral. Begin it as the number word. Also correct about spelling out numbers up to and including ten.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.apstylebook.com/ask_editor.php]APStylebook.com[/url”>http://www.apstylebook.com/ask_editor.php]APStylebook.com[/url</a>]</p>
<p>just for a little fun if you’re looking for quirky questions about spelling and grammar.</p>
<p>I think DD meant and wrote four-hour exercise(similar). I was not sure about it and got panicked. She did not begin with it so it’s safe.
Thank you all.</p>
<p>usually numbers under 10 are written out as words (though in a sentence with many numbers, you would use numbers for all of them if some are over 10: e.g., “there were 10 boys and 6 girls”; you would use the hyphen if it is an adjective: e.g., “four-hour work day.”</p>
<p>If “four-hour” is an adjective coming before a noun, which it almost certainly is, then it should be hyphenated.</p>
<p>As for the use of numerals versus words, there are various customs, as detailed in various (mutually incompatible) style guides. Some styles call for the use of words for one-digit numbers only, with numerals for 10 and above; others call for the use of words for everything up through ninety-nine. In scientific writing, sometimes numerals are used for everything, and in other scientific styles, numerals are used in front of units of measure, even if the number would be spelled out in other contexts (hour is a unit of measure).</p>
<p>If you haven’t been asked to follow a particular style in a document, probably the most important thing is to be consistent within the document.</p>
<p>“Four-hour” is a compound adjective that is modifying exercise and requires a hyphen, otherwise it would signify only the “hour” modifying “exercise” (as in “hour exercise”) and the sentence would not make sense.</p>
<p>As for the numeral, it’s my understanding that it’s almost always correct in MLA or APA stylebooks (used in collegiate contexts) to spell out numbers less than two-digits.</p>
<p>Can I pick a nit? Sometimes numbers less than 10 are used as numerals and not spelled out, but the cases are pretty specific – weights, measures, scores. But in this instance, “four-hour” whatever sounds correct!</p>
<p>^Yikes! This is why I don’t like grammar in any language. I don’t like to follow rules. I prefer numbers.:)</p>
<p>Since this is a grammar thread, and since I’m still on a rant from the “advertising” thread, I feel the need to mention that the misuse of the pronoun “I” certainly is becoming quite common these days.</p>
<p>Have y’all noticed how often one hears something like, “This is a picture of Jim and I”? Or, “He gave that to her and I”? It’s really amazing how degraded our language is becoming - it’s ironic that, in the “Communication Age”, where more information is passed between individuals than ever before, so many grammar rules are falling away. 99cents, you are to be applauded for investigating proper usage - wish more people would do that!</p>
<p>William Safire of the NY Times would advise “four hour.” Four is the adjective modifying hour. If you are writing about a span of time, you might be correct with the compound noun “four-hour.” Stylistically, the use of the numeral is not correct unless you need to save space or are limited to number of character, and then no hyphen would be used.
Have you a copy of Strunk & White’s “Elements of Style?” It’s pretty good, a lot of info in a little book and a new edition came out recently.</p>
<p>^DD has a copy. She first put 4 hour shift, then changed to 4-hour shift, then changed it again to four-hour shift. I originally thought 4-hour shift is correct but from all the postings it seems like four-hour shift. When I originally posed the question, I was wondering if it should be four hour shift . Her essay is now changed to four-hour shift.</p>
<p>What about ending a sentence in a preposition and split infinitives? Who can define a split infinitive?</p>