How old?

[Deleted]

The race is for six, seven and eight year olds.

or

The race is for six, seven and eight years old

[Twoddle]

Jun 30, 2008 20:00:11 GMT @fsamps said:

The race is for six, seven and eight year olds.

or

The race is for six, seven and eight years old

Hello, Fsamps.

Not the second version, because it doesn't really make sense. As far as the first version's concerned, I'd hyphenate it thus:
"The race is for six-, seven- and eight-year-olds."

I recommend that you await a few other opinions before deciding, though.

[Paul Doherty]

I agree with Twoddle.

[Tone]

>I agree with Twoddle.<

I almost agree -- but you all know that which I'd add! (HOC)

But: I wonder if, alternatively, we could lose the commas entirely?
"The race is for six- seven- and eight-year-olds."

Tone

[Twoddle]

Jun 30, 2008 20:27:11 GMT Tone said:

>I agree with Twoddle.<

I almost agree -- but you all know that which I'd add! (HOC)

But: I wonder if, alternatively, we could lose the commas entirely?
"The race is for six- seven- and eight-year-olds."

Tone

I'd rather add an extra (and unneccesary) comma than lose them all! But this is probably confusing Fsamps - trust Tone to do that! Fsamps, Tone is suggesting either using an extra comma (known as the Oxford comma, Harvard comma or serial comma) after "seven-" or, alternatively, dropping the commas altogether. His first idea is a possibility; his second should be ignored.

[Tone]

>- trust Tone to do that!<

Thanks, Twoddle. 'Tis nice to be trusted!

Tone

[Pete]

Jun 30, 2008 20:22:58 GMT Paul Doherty said:

I agree with Twoddle.

Me, too, on all counts.

[Verbivore]

fsamps: Welcome!

I, too, agree with Twoddle's approach.

[David]

Hello fsamps,

Twoddle's answer is perfectly fine. The only thought I had was that unless you specifically wanted to list the seven-year-olds, as the ages are consecutive it could be expressed as a range:

The race is for six- to eight-year-olds.

Slightly less cumbersome, maybe?

[Dave M]

Mmm ... I know what you mean, Dave, but that somehow doesn't sound comfortable. I keep wanting to put an ess on "year". (Perhaps just lack of familiarity with what sounds a very sensible construction.)

[Paul Doherty]

Seems OK to me. Of course, one could say "The race is for children who are six, seven or eight years old".

[Pete]

Jul 2, 2008 13:14:18 GMT Paul Doherty said:

Seems OK to me. Of course, one could say "The race is for children who are six, seven or eight years old".

Paul, this is recasting. I am a great fan of that but you usually are not, on the basis that recasting doresn't answer the question.

[Paul Doherty]

Call me fickle, Pete!

Depends on the question, really. If someone wants to know the best way to say something, I'd happily suggest a recasting. If someone wants to know why something is how it is, suggesting a recasting doesn't help.

Sometimes it's hard to know which type of question it is!

[Pete]

Jul 4, 2008 1:13:21 GMT Paul Doherty said:

Call me fickle, Pete!

Depends on the question, really. If someone wants to know the best way to say something, I'd happily suggest a recasting. If someone wants to know why something is how it is, suggesting a recasting doesn't help.

Sometimes it's hard to know which type of question it is!

This may be an unwarranted digression, but I think they are the same. In the main, the real question should be, "How do I communicate this concept unambiguously and clearly?" Sometime the answer is to punctuate properly, sometimes it's a syntax issue and sometimes the real answer is to write it a different way (a bit like the old joke about not starting from here).

[Paul Doherty]

Jul 4, 2008 13:05:38 GMT Pete said:

This may be an unwarranted digression

It is, I'm afraid.

I've started a new thread on the main board.