Story lines vs. Storylines

[revna01]

Has anyone had this come up in their reviews? From what I can tell, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary shows "story lines", whereas other sources state it is acceptable to use "storylines" as a noun. Grammarly prompts the usage of "storylines" as opposed to the splitting of the words. Thoughts?

[DennisK]

Compound words: The Germans know how to deal with this subject. They just mash all these words into one long word. We English speakers, however, need to make it more confusing. Welcome to grammar's very large gray area! I was confronted with that same quandary when using the word: fly-fish or fly fish. The Collins dictionary lists this word as fly-fish, but Merriam Webster lists it as either fly-fish or fly fish. I believe I could also get away with the word, flyfish. Grammarly has some interesting thoughts concerning compound words:
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/open-and ... und-words/

[revna01]

Haha! Yep, I totally understand what you mean. The gray (grey) area is extensive In one book I read the author used quotations in a way I wasn't familiar with. I researched it and found their method to be used primarily in the U.K. I learned something new with that one.

[lbhatters]

Has anyone had this come up in their reviews? From what I can tell, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary shows "story lines", whereas other sources state it is acceptable to use "storylines" as a noun. Grammarly prompts the usage of "storylines" as opposed to the splitting of the words. Thoughts?

It depends on the context. It might be the compound word or it might be the two seperate words. They are distinct and should not be confused, due to their definitions.

"Storylines" are plots or stories, whereas "story lines" are individual sentences in a story.

To check this, change them to singular. One storyline means one story, or one plot, and one story line is one sentence in a story. You can't substitute the two.

[revna01]

I was using "storylines" to describe the plot and it was an unfamiliar word for a reader. I was curious how others were using it. Thank you for the clarification!

[lbhatters]

Cool. Glad to help!

[kfwilson6]

I had this same question. I used story line in one review and the editor said he thought it was supposed to be one word but wasn't sure. I checked before I posted it because I really couldn't decide, but Merriam Webster had it as two separate words with the definition of "the plot of a story or drama". So I trusted that source. Even more interesting to me, because I do not want to lose points over this, when I typed my first ten today I put storyline and it is red underlined as a grammatical error (as it is as I write this post). So if the grammar checking on this website itself is saying it is incorrect, I definitely would say that story line to refer to the plot should be counted as acceptable.

[love_b00ks]

Words, grammars, they are every varying because they are alive! Can be confusing for many of us but we just have to deal with it, learn and just go with the flow.

[Fatima_Palacios]

Has anyone had this come up in their reviews? From what I can tell, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary shows "story lines", whereas other sources state it is acceptable to use "storylines" as a noun. Grammarly prompts the usage of "storylines" as opposed to the splitting of the words. Thoughts?

It depends on the context. It might be the compound word or it might be the two seperate words. They are distinct and should not be confused, due to their definitions.

"Storylines" are plots or stories, whereas "story lines" are individual sentences in a story.

To check this, change them to singular. One storyline means one story, or one plot, and one story line is one sentence in a story. You can't substitute the two.

This was very helpful thanks

[a9436]

Thanks! Would I be correct to assume that the same is true for plotlines?