Predicative Position of Adjectives: Do We Hyphenate after the Verb?

Solution 1:

Predicate adjectives generally are not hyphenated. They gain hyphens when preceding nouns. The common appearance of hyphens in predicate adjectives seems to be a back-formation: Having seen hyphens at "up-to-date account," a writer may then type "The account was up-to-date," unnecessarily carrying the hyphens along with the rest of the expression.

Examples 6 and 7 are exceptions because of the second expression in each, which starts with a a verb or a word that can be mistaken for one. Rather than adding hyphens to the predicate adjectives though, recast them. Example 6: The test has multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Example 7: Replace "is cutting edge" with "breaks new ground," "opens fresh horizons," "transforms user experience" (sorry: geek-speak), or whatever other substitute for "is new" that you select.