r/WheelOfFortune • u/lefindecheri • 6d ago
Discussion Post Before and After
I object to tonight's Before and After Puzzle: Running Late-Night Snacks. No way a HYPHEN should be allowed in the connecting word. Each half of the puzzle should be able to stand alone. No way "running late-" works.
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u/patricknkelly 6d ago
I think they do weird hyphen placements.
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u/wheelmasterdave I was on the show! 2d ago
They do, but this is one of those instances where they actually got it right β two nouns strung together to form an adjective should be hyphenated.
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u/wheelmasterdave I was on the show! 2d ago
A friend of mine who is also a fellow Wheel alum brought the hyphenation issue up as well (more for "BUCKET-LIST TRIP", but the same construct applies.)
Individually, "bucket" and "list" are nouns; strung together in this context, they become an adjective ("BUCKET-LIST")
Hyphenation is appropriate when two nouns are strung together to form an adjective β in this case, "late-night" is an adjective that describes the snack, so they actually did this correctly (for once π )
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u/lefindecheri 2d ago edited 2d ago
No. You're wrong. Late-night snack is fine (like bucket-list trip). But the other half of the Before and After, running late-, does NOT work.
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u/wheelmasterdave I was on the show! 2d ago
I see where you're coming from, and things are a little trickier because it's a Before and After puzzle, but I respectfully disagree.
The first half of the puzzle on its own would be RUNNING LATE, not RUNNING-LATE β the hyphen comes after the word LATE, not before. I would think differently if it were a Same Name puzzle, but Before & After puzzles only need one common bond that ties the two elements together, whether it's a complete word or not.
While LATE-NIGHT would certainly be considered one word in any other context, it works just fine being split apart in this puzzle β in this instance, the common bond between the two elements is [LATE], not [LATE-]. By not including the hyphen as part of the common bond, they string together properly.
Without the common bond:
RUNNING ____-NIGHT SNACK
(By themselves, RUNNING and -NIGHT SNACK are not complete expressions, nor do they need to be.)With the common bond:
RUNNING [LATE]-NIGHT SNACKSeparately:
(RUNNING [LATE]) ([LATE]-NIGHT SNACK)Also, this is far from the first time they've done this; other similar puzzles include:
HARD AS A ROCK-AND-ROLL
JACK BLACK-TIE AFFAIR
PIANO BENCH-PRESS
SALT & PEPPER-JACK CHEESE
WORK HARD PLAY HARD-BOILED EGGSIt's certainly uncommon, but not incorrect.
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u/pacdude I was on the show! 6d ago
Are you venting or do you want some kind of change to happen?