The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style : A ...

done 99
word should never be divided. The division
can throw readers off track, particularly
when the pieces have other
meanings, as pro- and be do.
Any word should be kept intact if dividing
it might mislead readers. When
isolated, a part of a word like hasten and
often tends to form a word in itself with
a different pronunciation (has-ten and
of-ten).
A hyphenated compound, such as
hang-up or send-off, should be divided
at the hyphen and nowhere else. Yet one
was published as “han-” and “gup” and
the other as “sen-” and “d-off” in two
newspapers. A solid compound, such as
nearsighted or woodpecker, is divided
between the two words of which it is
composed.
Two-syllable words should be divided
between the syllables. However, a single
letter is not split off from the rest of a
word. A word like adroit should never
be divided, inasmuch as its two syllables
are a and droit. One newspaper divided
that word into “adr-” and “oit.”
The rules, and their exceptions, go on
at length, dealing with prefixes, suffixes,
consonants, vowels, and double letters.
And the American and British systems
vary. Words divided according to pronunciation
in the former (knowl-edge,
democ-racy) are divided according to
derivation in the latter (know-ledge,
demo-cracy).
General dictionaries show possible division
points by means of centered dots.
The dictionaries do not always agree on
where those points are, sometimes
because pronunciations differ. It is
hi•er•o•glyph•ic in one dictionary,
hi•ero•glyph•ic in another; tel•e•phone
in the first dictionary, tele•phone in the
other. One dictionary makes it gon•
a•do•trop•ic, a second go•na•do•
tro•pic, a third gonado•trop•ic, and a
fourth go•nad•o•trop•ic.
Any division of abbreviations, initials,
or figures can be confusing and should
be avoided. See Numbers, 3.
DIVORCÉ, DIVORCÉE, and DI-
VORCEE. See BACHELOR and
SPINSTER.
DO, DID, DONE. The catch phrase
“I dood it” belonged to the comedian
Red Skelton. Much later, a big-city police
chief said, “I think I’ve did a good
job,” and a restaurant reviewer said,
about meat that one could cut with a
fork, “I know because I’ve did it.” Neither
man was being funny. Each probably
made a slip of the tongue and knew
the correct form, “I’ve done it,” meaning
I’ve performed it or carried it out, and all
these forms of the verb do:
Present tense: I, you, we, they do; he,
she, it does. Past tense: I, you, etc. did.
Future tense: I, you, etc. will do. Perfect
tenses: I, you, we, they have or had done;
he, she, it has or had done.
A helping verb (such as has or is) usually
precedes the past participle done.
This broadcast sentence, “What he done
was impossible to do”—instead of
“What he did” (dig out of an
avalanche)—is ungrammatical. It is also
contradictory; what is impossible cannot
be done.
When it is not ambiguous, done is acceptable
as an adjective meaning completed:
“My work here is done.”
However, in a sentence like “The work
will be done next month” it can be understood
to mean performed; so if completed
or finished is meant, it is better to
use one of those words.
A facetious term for a mystery tale is a
whodunit. This slang noun was coined
from the ungrammatical phrase “Who
done it?” Had the coiner been more
scrupulous about his grammar, people
might be reading or watching whodidits.
See also DON’T and DOESN’T; USE
TO and USED TO (regarding did).
DOESN’T. See DON’T and DOESN’T.
DONE. See DO, DID, DONE.