#writing ages

[theimpalatales]

Which is correct?

Their son was a ten-year-old boy.

Their son was a ten year old boy.

Voting ended onMay 11, 2023

Vote and then click below to find out the answer...

Option 1 is correct!

We hyphenate the age (ten-year-old) because the words are all working together to describe the noun 'boy'.

Even if the word boy was removed from the end of the sentence, we'd still hyphenate the age as the noun is implied.

If the sentence read, "Their son was ten years old', we wouldn't use hyphens since the noun here is 'son' and comes before the age descriptor.

[just-open-the-book-blog]

I wonder what it would be like to write an Age in English (or any other language IRL).  I know the functionality of “the Art” is most closely paralleled with computer programming, but would a written Age in English look like lines of code?  Poetry?  Prose? Some combination of all of them? 

I’m toying with the idea of writing an Age and the format is the first creative hurdle.

[thewritershelpers]

Hi! I'm writing a story in which one of characters looks very young, but he's actually centuries old. In the story he's actually been in love with the MC's grandmother since she was a young woman; this grandmother is still alive, and they have many scenes together. They still love eachother. However, I don't reveal the fact that the first character is reaaaally old until much later in the story. Have any piece of advice about how to write their scenes together without it being really creepy?

Honestly, you’re over-thinking it. In my opinion, just write it out how you would normally write it out. If they’re in love, it’ll seem like there’s no age difference between them. I know it’s hard to forget that he’s muuuuuch older than she is, but if you can try and push it out of your mind for a little while while you write those scenes, it’ll be much easier for you!

If this didn’t help at all, please shoot us another question!

 -H