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RamsesThePigeon t1_iyt5jjs wrote

>Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun.

Source

This is pretty basic stuff... and if you genuinely think that it's uncommon, that's probably a sign that you need to read more books and fewer Internet comments.

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Garlien t1_iytc5mu wrote

I've seen it used often for some compounds adjectives like well-known or chocolate-covered from that page, but never as a blanket rule across all compound adjectives. Most hyphenation rules they listed have exceptions anyway, so I'd argue that more-literal isn't a necessarily hyphenated adjective.

Either way, the OP is correct enough that there's no reasonable way to misinterpret it due to "the" appearing before the adjectives. "The more translations" (omitting the "literal") doesn't make sense, "More translations" would be ambiguous.

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triad1996 OP t1_iytrvw0 wrote

Believe you me, I'm a dunderhead when it comes to the fine points of grammar. If I typed a grammatically correct sentence, it's purely by accident.

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