25 Does "non-" prefixed to a two word phrase permit another hyphen before the second word? If I want to refer to an entity which is defined as the negation of another entity by attaching "non-" it seems strange to attach the "non-" only to the first word when the second one is really the word naming the entity. For example, non-control freak

Using "non-" to prefix a two-word phrase - English Language & Usage ...

At the linguistics conference, there were no / not / non- native speakers of Esperanto. They're all grammatically "valid", but they all mean different things - and pragmatically / idiomatically, only the no version is likely to be used.

What is the correct way to apply the prefix "non-" to negate a (maybe dashed) compound adjective? Suppose that we want to negate a generic compound adjective " adjective1 adjective2 ". In this case: "non- adjective1 adjective2 " looks a bit ambiguous since the scope of the prefix "non-" is at least unclear (in fact seems to affect only adjective1).

Except "non" is not an English word, it is a prefix of Latin origin. Which is why American style manuals will always ask you to merge it with the subsequent word, without a hyphen. British rules differ, and the "non-" construction is frequently found in the literature.

hyphenation - Is the use of a hyphen between "non" and an adjective ...