Hyphens in Ages (with Examples)

Hyphens in Ages

• A twenty-four-year-old paid the first tribute.

• She is a twenty-four-year-old woman.

• She is twenty-four years old.

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Ages As Compound Nouns

• He is a two-year-old with attitude.
(This is a compound noun. (It is just like words like ice-axe or cooking-oil, which are also compound nouns.) The words in a compound noun are linked together to show they are a singular entity.)
• I look after three two-year-olds from 9 am to 11 am.
(As with most nouns, there is a plural version too.)

Ages As Compound Adjectives

• He is a two-year-old horse.
(This is a compound adjective. It is no different from an adjective like "two-page" in "two-page document."


• I look after three two-year-old horses.
(As with most adjectives, it can modify something singular or plural.)

Ages As Predicate Adjectives

• Jason is two years old.
(The predicate-adjective form appears after a linking verb (here, "is") and after the noun it modifies (here, "Jason"). There is no need to use hyphens in the predicate adjective form.)
• Jason is twenty-two years old.
(This version contains a hyphen only because twenty-two is spelled with a hyphen under the rules for writing numbers in full.)