5 Compound-Word Corrections

5 Compound-Word Corrections 5 Compound-Word Corrections 5 Compound-Word Corrections By Mark Nichol Writers sometimes confuse a two-word phrase for a closed compound noun consisting of those two words, or vice versa. Here are five cases in which a noun phrase or a verb phrase was mistaken for a compound word or the other way around. 1. â€Å"Eating McDonald’s food everyday for four weeks turned this filmmaker into a bloated, depressed wreck.† Everyday is an adjective (â€Å"It’s not an everyday occurrence†). â€Å"Every day† is a phrase consisting of an adjective and a noun (â€Å"That’s not something you see every day†). In this sentence, the usage is adjective-plus-noun: â€Å"Eating McDonald’s food every day for four weeks turned this filmmaker into a bloated, depressed wreck.† 2. â€Å"Seen as both godsend and a major let down, it remains the city’s artistic center.† â€Å"Let down,† consisting of a verb and an adverb, is employed in such sentences as â€Å"He was let down.† As a closed compound, it’s a noun: â€Å"That’s a real letdown.† In this sentence, it should be in noun form: â€Å"Seen as both godsend and a major letdown, it remains the city’s artistic center.† 3. â€Å"Resistance from the state legislature could doom the governor-elect’s promise to rollback the hike.† A rollback is a thing (â€Å"The rollback proposal failed in committee†); to roll back is to perform an action (â€Å"The state will roll back the price hike†). This sentence refers to an action, not a thing, so the compound must be changed to a verb phrase: â€Å"Resistance from the state legislature could doom the governor-elect’s promise to roll back the hike.† 4. â€Å"California gave a record $100 million loan to bailout schools.† As in the previous example, what is in context an action is styled as a noun. The sentence should read, â€Å"California gave a record $100 million loan to bail out schools.† Better yet, close the sentence with the preposition: â€Å"California gave a record $100 million loan to bail schools out.† 5. â€Å"International organizations continue their pull out as rebels attack a train.† If the sentence read that the organizations continued to pull out, the two-word verb phrase would be correct. But pulling out is an action, so it’s a pullout: â€Å"International organizations continue their pullout as rebels attack a train.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite AdjectivesCapitalization Rules for Names of Historical Periods and MovementsAdvance vs. Advanced

Change a Column Name in MySQL

Change a Column Name in MySQL If you already created your MySQL database, and you decide after the fact that one of the columns is named incorrectly, you dont need to remove it and add a replacement; you can simply rename it. Renaming a Database Column You rename a column in MySQL using the  ALTER TABLE and CHANGE  commands together to change an existing column. For example, say the  column is currently named Soda, but you decide that Beverage is  a more appropriate title. The column is located on the table entitled Menu. Here is an example of how to change it: ALTER TABLE menu CHANGE soda beverage varchar(10) ; In a generic  form, where you substitute your terms, this is: ALTER TABLE tablename CHANGE oldname newname varchar(10) ; About VARCHAR The VARCHAR(10) in the examples can change to be appropriate for your column. VARCHAR is a character string of variable length. The maximum length- in this example  it is 10- indicates the maximum number of characters you want to store in the column. VARCHAR(25) could store up to 25 characters. Other Uses for ALTER TABLE The ALTER TABLE  command can also be used to add a new column to a table or to remove an entire column and all its data from a table. For example, to add a column use: ALTER TABLE table_nameADD column_name datatype To delete a column, use: ALTER TABLE table_nameDROP COLUMN column_name   You can also make changes to a columns size and type in MySQL.