Which would you use: full-size, full-sized, full size or full sized?
I want to use full-sized, as in:
Click here to download a full-sized version of this image.
But Google NGrams disagrees:
So, given:
- full-size
- full-sized
- full size
- full sized
which would you employ and why?
Solution 1:
From Collins Cobuild English Dictionary:
full-size or full-sized A full-size or full-sized model or picture is the same size as the thing or person that it represents.
So, I would choose one of those options and trust the dictionary.
Solution 2:
I really couldn't decide between full-sized and full-size in your example: both would be perfectly fine and common. Note that you need the hyphen in either case, because it is a compound adjective (an adjective composed of more than one word) and it comes before the noun it belongs to. If you put it after, you don't need the hyphen: this picture is not full size. (Note that it is often more stylistically pleasing to use a different construction in that case.)
Solution 3:
Either option is correct and usable. Both they have slightly different emphases. "Full-size" indicates that it is of the right size, while "full-sized" may additionally imply that it was deliberately made to that size. It's a very slight difference.
@Cerberus is correct that no hyphen is used when you put it afterwards.