Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes
Q. Would you hyphenate “less skilled workers” or “more efficient method”? Section 7.90 of CMOS 15 (subsection 1: adverb not ending in ly + participle or adverb) indicates that compounds with “least” and “most” are usually open. If you would hyphenate, or if you wouldn’t, what is the reason? A colleague and I do not hyphenate such compounds, and we haven’t for years, but we can’t quite say why. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.
A. The hyphen can help clarify meaning in ambiguous phrases. For instance, there is a difference in meaning between “Smith Company has the most skilled workers” (the largest number of skilled workers) and “Brown Company has the most-skilled workers” (the workers with the highest skills). Where there is no danger of confusion, the hyphen may be safely omitted. “Less skilled workers” needs no hyphen (since, if numbers were meant, we would write “fewer skilled workers”); likewise, “more efficient method” is clear without a hyphen.
