200 years old or 200-years-old

[Jack King]

Hello in the following sentence

Other than a few throwaway references to songs on the radio and mention of America being 200-years-old there is not much else that shows the time period.

Is it correct to have it as 200-years-old or should it be 200 years old?

[Blackstenius]

The hyphens are unnecessary.

[Jack King]

The hyphens are unnecessary.

Can you help me understand when they are and arent needed please

[MsH2k]

Hello in the following sentence

Other than a few throwaway references to songs on the radio and mention of America being 200-years-old there is not much else that shows the time period.

Is it correct to have it as 200-years-old or should it be 200 years old?

Hi,

It doesn’t need hyphens because it is merely stating the age of the country. It would require hyphens if it were an adjective before the noun:
Other than a few throwaway references to songs on the radio and mention of America being a 200-year-old country there is not much else that shows the time period.

Also hyphenate if it is a substitute for a noun:
Tim, a 2-year-old, was having a bad day.

Another clue is you would most likely not hyphenate the phrase if it had “years” instead of “year.”

(This is off topic, but since it is a long introductory phrase, you may consider adding a comma after “old.”)

This site goes into more detail on hyphen usage with age:
https://writingexplained.org/years-old-hyphenate

and this site discusses hyphens in general:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writ ... n_use.html

[Hannah Hampton]

If the words are used together as a compound adjective, the hyphens are correct (the 200-year-old nation), but if they are used after a copular verb then the hyphens are incorrect (the nation was 200 years old). Hope this helps!

[Jack King]

Hello in the following sentence

Other than a few throwaway references to songs on the radio and mention of America being 200-years-old there is not much else that shows the time period.

Is it correct to have it as 200-years-old or should it be 200 years old?

Hi,

It doesn’t need hyphens because it is merely stating the age of the country. It would require hyphens if it were an adjective before the noun:
Other than a few throwaway references to songs on the radio and mention of America being a 200-year-old country there is not much else that shows the time period.

Also hyphenate if it is a substitute for a noun:
Tim, a 2-year-old, was having a bad day.

Another clue is you would most likely not hyphenate the phrase if it had “years” instead of “year.”

(This is off topic, but since it is a long introductory phrase, you may consider adding a comma after “old.”)

This site goes into more detail on hyphen usage with age:
https://writingexplained.org/years-old-hyphenate

and this site discusses hyphens in general:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writ ... n_use.html

Thank you both, your help is much appreciated! My punctuation is currently holding back my scores quite a bit so anything to improve it helps!