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invalid prq wrote: ↑25 Feb 2023, 09:30 The hyphens are unnecessary.

Jack King 2 wrote: ↑25 Feb 2023, 05:48 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?

MsH2k wrote: ↑26 Feb 2023, 14:54

Jack King 2 wrote: ↑25 Feb 2023, 05:48 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