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Grammar Wizard Needed

edited November 2016 in Writing
Editing conundrum! Most of us are aware of the intricacies of the 'foot versus feet' rule.
In a novel I make reference to, 'four-feet fluorescent lights', which I believe is correct.

In daily talk, most of us would say, four-foot etc.
AND, am I right to hyphenate?

Opinions please? Ta!

Comments

  • No definitive answer.

    If the fluorescent light has four feet (individual ones that they are resting on) then I'd leave out the hyphen.

    But I assume the lights are four-feet high...
  • I'd just put four-feet long fluorescent lights. I'm presuming these are on the ceiling.
  • Beds and strip lights, and perhaps other things, are listed as 4ft, 5ft, etc

    I think is sounds better to say 4ft light or four foot light [adding 'strip might help], so four foot strip light.
  • 'ft' is also the abbreviation for feet.
  • Or call them forty-eight inch - still not plural!
  • Thanks all.
    I'm not sure we'd use the abbreviated form in formal writing. For an advertising brochure or fencing quote maybe, but a novel?
    Sure, we are accustomed to writing mph for speed, but you've all answered my query as 'feet' rather than 'foot', so thanks.
    Now I'll start a different thread for another one.
  • edited November 2016
    Feet is wrong. In the same way that you would never refer to a thirty-feet yacht, or a six-feet plank of wood, or a three-inches nail, you should stick to foot here.

    Oxford Style Manual says:
    All units of measurement retain their singular form when they are compounded to form hyphenated adjectives before other nouns.
    A five-pound note; a six-foot wall, a nine-inch nail.

    Fowlers:
    foot and feet alternate when used as a unit of length or height - she is five feet tall/she is five foot tall.
    When such a phrase is used attributively a hyphen is normally placed between the numeral and FOOT: a 12-foot dinghy. Where inches are also used, foot is more common than feet. He is six foot three.


  • Quite. Which is why I put in 'long'.
  • It's no help, but years ago my dad was surprised to see an order he'd placed on a previous visit to a timber merchant was still pinned up above the sales desk where they kept cartoons and press cuttings.

    He didn't understand what was wrong as he'd got everything just as he'd ordered and it all fitted perfectly.

    Assuming he'd made an amusing spelling mistake (he often does) I took a look. All his measurements were in metres and inches and decimals of inches. Eg 4 metres, 13.75 inches.
  • Mrs Bear. Thank you so much for that. I acknowledge the time you've taken to answer with research and reference. Clicking on 'thanks' just wasn't enough.
    Perhaps the Style Manual should be my next investment.
  • My pleasure, PET.

    I suspect it dates from when architects and masons measured with pieces of string marked into foot lengths with knots.

    PM, most DIYers who weren't brought up in the metric system still buy, for example, 3-metre lengths of 4x4 wood. In fact, until fairly recently, that's how it was still sold. I remember querying it with the arch-renovator, Mr Bear, at the time.

  • Yes, in fact that was my scant reference to fencing. Who would buy a 1.8 metre panel instead of a six-foot one?
    A word of warning though, as my return compliment; don't let Mr Bear see you refer to his precious material as 'wood'. I bet he would (sorry!) correct you to 'timber'!!
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