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    use of hyphens in "red wine flavoured chocolate"

    Topic

    use of hyphens in "red wine flavoured chocolate"

    Comment
    If you were translating an official label for a branded product, would you write:

    red wine flavoured chocolate
    red-wine flavoured chocolate
    red wine-flavoured chocolate
    or
    red-wine-flavoured-chocolate
     

    or do we basically have a choice and there is no "correct" answer?

    many thanks!


    AuthorAnnaUK (806456) 15 Mar 17, 20:52
    Comment
    If the chocolate is red, then red, wine-flavoured chocolate. Otherwise red-wine flavoured chocolate.

    Flavoured is unambiguously​ an adjective, so no hyphen needed there.
    #1Author amw (532814) 15 Mar 17, 21:51
    Comment
    I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as #1 would suggest. I’ve often seen the variant along the lines of red wine-flavoured chocolate.
    #2Author Stravinsky (637051) 15 Mar 17, 23:07
    Comment
    This phrase asks a lot from the poor hyphen, but, forced to choose, I'd go with amw (#1).
    #3Author Martin--cal (272273) 15 Mar 17, 23:26
    Comment
    Agree with #1. If the hyphen is between wine and flavoured, it implies that the color of the chocolate is red.
    #4Author Ina R. (425467) 15 Mar 17, 23:51
    Comment
    Assuming that the chocolate is flavored like red wine, the only correct choice is to hyphenate all the parts of the adjective, as English convention indeed requires.

    red-wine-flavored chocolate

    The question is not whether 'flavored' is an adjective -- that's a red herring. The question is whether, if you replaced 'red wine' with another flavor in one word, you would still need to connect it to 'flavored' with a hyphen, and the answer is unequivocally yes.

    coconut-flavored chocolate
    peppermint-flavored chocolate
    peanut-butter-and-jelly-flavored chocolate
    #5Author hm -- us (236141) 16 Mar 17, 00:56
    Comment
    Agree with #5.
    #6AuthorHappyWarrior (964133) 16 Mar 17, 01:10
    Comment
    Disagree with #5. Not that I find the spelling "red-wine-flavored chocolate" unacceptable; it's certainly a possibility. But I disagree with the assertion that a hyphen before the word "flavor" is "unequivocally" required.

    Just search, e.g., for "cherry-flavored cough syrup" vs. "cherry flavored cough syrup"; you'll find numerous examples of both spellings.

    Frankly, whether or not you put a hyphen before "flavor" is just a matter of taste -- there really isn't any unequivocal rule determining the spelling here.
    #7Author Martin--cal (272273) 16 Mar 17, 05:49
    Comment
    So what about leaving ALL the hyphens out? I believe some of the style books in the USA suggest that you can drop hyphens - if you wish - UNLESS they really are needed to clarify the meaning. Some might argue that just about everyone reading "red wine flavoured chocolate" will assume that it tastes of red wine.
    What do YOU think?
    #8AuthorAnnaUK (806456) 16 Mar 17, 08:33
    Comment
    I would write "red-wine-flavoured".

    Chicago use a hyphen for a compound adjective consisting of a noun and a past participle, and if you have one hyphen you need the other one.
    #9AuthorMikeE (236602) 16 Mar 17, 10:49
    Comment
    I would also write red-wine-flavoured chocolate. Not that the final hyphen is absolutely crucial, but one might as well be systematic.
    #10Author escoville (237761) 16 Mar 17, 10:53
    Comment
    red-wine-flavo(u)red chocolate... - same here.
    #11AuthorBraunbärin (757733) 16 Mar 17, 17:10
    Comment
    red-wine-flavoured chocolate ... wenn's denn Schokolade mit Rotwein(geschmack) ist, wäre das auch meine bevorzugte Schreibweise ...
    #12Author no me bré (700807) 16 Mar 17, 17:45
    Comment
    No hyphens leave it ambigous to me. There are lots of fancy chocolates around these days that are painted in all kinds of colors, so a red wine flavored one could be be a wine flavored one that's colored red or one that's flavored with red wine.
    #13Author Ina R. (425467) 16 Mar 17, 18:39
    Comment
    and if it really were red chocolate that tastes of wine, could I write:

    red, wine-flavoured chocolate? (with a comma) or would I have to leave the comma out?


    thanks!
    #14AuthorAnnaUK (806456) 19 Mar 17, 15:29
    Comment
    #14
    You would normally need the comma.
    That is assuming that you are talking about chocolate that is red and wine-flavoured.
    If, in context, "wine-flavoured chocolate" were more of an established concept and you were talking about "wine-flavoured chocolate" that was red, you could possibly omit the comma.
    #15AuthorMikeE (236602) 19 Mar 17, 17:29
     
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