The headline below is from MSNBC, and ran above an AP story. I show it here because it represents a common grammatical error in English: a misplaced hyphen. People often think when there are two adjectives modifying a noun, there should be a hyphen connecting them. Or perhaps people think when the two adjectives are related, they need a hyphen. But in fact, that is almost never the case. A hyphen is used most often when one of the adjectives modifies the other, and not always then. The rule seems to be changing in common usage lately, but this example is still wrong.

No. 18 Florida stunned for third-straight loss

Posted under Grammar Police, Journalism

Sacramento woke up today to its first measurable snowfall in 33 years.

Posted under General