Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes
Q. Can you offer any guidance as to how best to render people’s height? I’ve seen “five feet, two inches” (tall), “five-feet-two-inches” “five-feet-two,” “five-foot-two” (yikes!), “five-two,” all of the preceding with the hyphens placed otherwise or omitted, and, of course, good old 5' 2''. I’ve searched “Chicago” but haven’t found the answer. Help!
A. I would recommend that you write, for example, the following:
five feet six inches tall
5 feet 5¼ inches tall ( or five feet five and one-quarter inches tall)
five feet six
five-six
Sometimes “foot” and “feet,” as you’ve pointed out, are exchanged, probably because there can be a gray area between noun and adjective functions. So, “five feet two [inches tall]” can be interchanged with “five foot two [gymnast].” In my opinion the latter is awkward no matter what, and it sounds colloquial.
