"Serious bodily injury accident" -- Part 1

The Word "If" Reading "Serious bodily injury accident" -- Part 1 1 minute Next Comma Before a Predicate Nominative

The punctuation of these words occasioned a rather heated discussion on FB that contained a number of misconceptions about the language in general.

First, a note about the "-ly" issue.

Adverbs that end in "-ly" are formed from an adjective:

...recent, recently...
...new, newly...
...charming, charmingly...
...heavy, heavily...
...steady, steadily...

When one of these "-ly" words combines with another word to form a modifying unit in front of a noun, the combination is not hyphenated.

...recently built condominiums...
...highly touted methods...
...heavily sedated patients...

Having said that, however, I have to go on with the story.

There are over 100 words that end in "-ly" that are NOT adverbs, not forms that come from adding "-ly" to an adjective.

...friendly...
...lovely...
...lively...
...bodily...

These words are most often adjectives.

...friendly dog...
...lively conversation...
...bodily injury...

So the moral of this story is that "bodily injury" does not fall into the "-ly words are not hyphenated" rule.

More to come on this issue.

Happy punctuating!

Margie