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Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest?



 
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Reported speech in the past | Unfilmable novel
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Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest? #1 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:03 pm   Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest?
 

Hi

Assume that your product had a locked-down, final, absolutely-can’t-change-it product spec.

Actually I don’t know, whether it is just 'the last word in fashion', but I quite often meet long 'hyphened compounds'.
The longest I know consists of 4 (4.5 :) ) words, like that from the thread name.

Can you give an example of the longer one?
Do you have a problem when pronounce them? (Some really require you to have the good breathe :))
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Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest? #2 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:43 pm   Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest?
 

.
These formations are an old technique, and usually created by the writer on an ad hoc basis; they are seldom found in a dictionary. Feel free to create one yourself, for as long as your breath lasts.

She was a once-in-a-lifetime-and-never-on-Sunday, stand-up-and-holler, all-round-Bible-thumping raise-the-dead preacher from you-know-where-and-you-know-how-come.

...whatever that means...
.
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Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest? #3 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 14:19 pm   Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest?
 

.
That's quite a read-with-mouth-agape-whilst-trying-to-reserve-some-breath explanation, MM. :lol:
.
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Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest? #4 (permalink) Sat Oct 07, 2006 14:21 pm   Absolutely-can’t-change-it: Do you know the longest?
 

Just an expressive technique…
Thank you, Mister Micawber.

Sometimes I do it in Russian.
Hope, my English-speaking breath lasts ('last breath', sorry for the clumsy pun…) not much briefer than my native one. :)

Thanks, Amy, I'll try it. :)
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