Anastasia
Hi! I have a question about some compound adjectives. Is it possible to say white-teethed when describing a person? Or is white-toothed better? And is it correct to say that someone is cheek-dimpled?
9. Jan. 2024 11:13
Antworten · 12
6
White-toothed ✅ Generally, you want to attach "ed" to the singular form of the noun. For example: black-horned bull 🐂 yellow-tailed cat 🐈 Cheek-dimpled: It sounds like it makes sense, but i can't say for sure. Hopefully someone else can confirm.
9. Januar 2024
2
There is nothing wrong with ‘white-toothed’ or ‘dimpled-cheek’. The point is that using a compound adjective can change the meaning. For example, in the following it makes them more ordinary: ‘If you want to make a living as a model, having a white-toothed smile or a dimple-cheeked face isn’t enough in today’s market. It’s very competitive out there.’ Saying that a person is ‘white-toothed’ isn’t grammatically wrong but, like saying someone has ‘white teeth’, it’s just meaningless in most contexts.
9. Januar 2024
2
Someone said that white-toothed is incorrect. It is actually correct English. However, you may only see it used that way in literature. Common speech might just say, “Jack has white teeth.”
9. Januar 2024
1
"Cheek-dimpled" just simply isn't a valid construction. Would say someone is "leg-broken" or "skin-cut'? You could just say the person has dimples like in Paul's examples, or you could say someone has "dimpled cheeks."
9. Januar 2024
1
The verb "teeth" has a specific meaning that differs from what you think it means. During the time when a baby animal is growing its first teeth, it is said to be "teething". "Teeth" also acts as a noun as the plural of "tooth". However, it generally makes no sense to add "-ed" to a plural noun. "Cheek-dimpled" sounds nonsensical, but it is not wrong; it just doesn't mean what you think it means. In English, it is possible to make sense out of a great many things that appear to be nonsensical. To interpret "cheek dimpled", I would say that "dimpled" is an adjective and "cheek" as a noun. I would not interpret it to mean "having dimpled cheeks" (which is what you intended for it to mean). Rather, I would interpret it to mean "having dimples that look like cheeks". That is an implausible image, but language allows us to create implausible images, so it is not a mistake.
10. Januar 2024
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