Some advice please.

FlutterinBantam

Over on radio the Flutther's beady eyes widened when he saw a thread title

'General Bad Mouthing Free Zone'

Thought the mods had 'cut the cords' and given us a thread which allowed a 'free zone 'to badmouth without repercussions, right up Flutther's alley:cool:

On closer perusal discovered it was the opposite, and no bad mouthing was expected, only positive stuff, which turned the Flutter right off.

Got to thinking how would one write it to avoid ambiguity,using the same words.

General Bad-Mouthing-Free Zone??

General 'bad mouthing'-free zone?

Yakuza

bluewolf wrote: »

General 'bad mouthing'-free zone?

Yep, I agree that's probably the best way to write it, given the constraint of using the same words (and preserving the order).

I'd would have used double quotes, but that's just me.

Donkey Oaty

I'm not sure it's going to work using the same words, as "-free zone" is usually for a noun rather than an verb, which is why we have smoke-free zones and "no smoking" zones but not "smoking-free zones".

For the "Flutt-free zone" they want, how about "General 'No bad-mouthing' zone"?

FlutterinBantam

Is there some rule about not hyphenating three words?

Zone seems to be the noun and 'general bad mouthing' seems to be the adjective.

can you not hyphenate those three?

FlutterinBantam

Having another look and unshackling myself from self imposed constraints, I have reached the conclusion that the 'general' is the problem.

Superfluous to the thread title which should have been

Bad-mouthing free, zone.

Would that be it:eek:

Donkey Oaty

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Having another look and unshackling myself from self imposed constraints, I have reached the conclusion that the 'general' is the problem.

Superfluous to the thread title which should have been

Bad-mouthing free, zone.

Would that be it:eek:

That sounds to me like a list of things, one being a zone and the other being bad-mouthing that doesn't cost anything.

Badmouthing-free zone or badmouth-free zone is another option if you want to get rid of the hyphen...cock-a-hoop!

Is it not a zone where people can speak about general radio things without bad-mouthing?

Donkey Oaty

Here's a good quote I just found:

If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad.

It's from the Oxford University Press style manual, no less.

looksee

Zone that is free of 'bad-mouthing'?

Granted it lacks a certain fluency or snappiness, but you can't have everything

pickarooney

Stupidly convoluted name, IMO. What does the 'general' apply to: the bad-mouthing or the zone?

MathsManiac

pickarooney wrote: »

Stupidly convoluted name, IMO. What does the 'general' apply to: the bad-mouthing or the zone?

Or perhaps neither. Maybe it's a thread where you're not allowed to bad-mouth generals, and must confine your insults to lower ranking officers.

The Raven.

MathsManiac wrote: »

Or perhaps neither. Maybe it's a thread where you're not allowed to bad-mouth generals, and must confine your insults to lower ranking officers.

Yes, that is a possibility, or it could also mean that some general is bad-mouthing a free zone.