The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support Forumsas we ramp up for the last two weeks...
Grammar tips for Twitter:
If you're trying to describe a single motherfucker who is both a racist and a piece of shit, there are some basic rules to follow:
1) Motherfucker is, indeed, a compound noun, so it is a single word: "motherfucker," as is the gerund/adjective "motherfucking," as in "The president of the United States is a motherfucking racist," or "The president of the United States is a motherfucker."
2) "Racist" can be used as both a noun and an adjective, so its placement in your sentence depends on how you use it: "The motherfucking president is a racist," and "The president is a motherfucking racist" are both correct, as is "The racist president is a motherfucker."
3) "Piece-of-shit" is different than both "motherfucking" and "racist" because as a compound adjective used before the noun it modifies, it needs hyphenation. As a noun phrase, "piece of shit" needs no extra hyphenation: "The president is a piece of shit" is fine, but you need to write "The piece-of-shit president is a motherfucking racist" with the hyphens indicating its role as an adjective.
4) If you want to use both "piece of shit" as a predicate adjective and "motherfucking" and "racist" as adjectives before the noun, it needs a comma to separate what are called "adjectives of equal rank": "The President is a motherfucking, racist piece of shit." (Thanks, Roland99!)
Tree-Hugger
(3,370 posts)I believe I have been doing #3 incorrectly.
Thank you for the tips.
Wicked Blue
(5,819 posts)and naturally mf is short for motherfucker,
Arne
(2,003 posts)catbyte
(34,334 posts)on November 5.