English is full of compound adjectives, which may combine an adjective with either another adjective, a participle, or a noun. When numbers or fractions are used to describe a noun, this can also result in a hyphenated adjective.

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Generally, compound adjectives should be hyphenated when they come before a noun (attributive position):

But beyond the well-known attractions.

Caption 20, Greentraveller: The Mendip Hills, Somerset

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This is the high-pitched noise that's been on since the beginning of the talk turning off.

Caption 50, What is theater capable of?: Simon Stone at TEDxSydney

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She was surprised that a good-looking prince was standing there.

Caption 27, Fairy Tales: The Frog King

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For weeks now, this slow-moving crisis has made it difficult—if not impossible—to move barges down the river.

Captions 28-29, Slow News with Sigrid: Climate Change and the Mississippi River

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When the adjective follows the noun (predicative position), it won't be hyphenated: 

But perhaps less well known is the crucial role they play in cooling and cleaning the world's atmosphere.

Captions 14-15, The Prince's Rainforests: Project Prince of Wales' Introduction

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Adjectives coming before the noun that involve numbers and units will generally be hyphenated:

This sunflower sea star has a three-foot-wide arm span.

Caption 16, America's National Parks: Olympic

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This seventy-three-mile-long stretch of wilderness...

Caption 5, America's National Parks: Olympic

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When there is an adverb ending in -ly involved, the compound adjective is not hyphenated:

The next step is to put all the potatoes in a lightly greased roasting tray.

Caption 62, Michele from Down Under: Crispy and Spicy Roast Potatoes

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California sea lions are highly intelligent creatures.

Caption 59, Evolution: The Coasts

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Further Learning
You'll find many examples like this on Yabla English. When you see one, note the position of the compound adjective in the sentence, and its components. 

You likely know the present continuous ("I am sitting at the table," "He is going to the grocery store"), but how familiar are you with the past continuous? 

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The past continuous is often used to set the scene and provide context when talking about the past:

I was working in the theatre in England.

Caption 13, Donald Sutherland - Talks Career and Hollywood

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A very typical structure with the past continuous and simple past tenses together occurs when one action or event in the past interrupts another action that is already in progress. 

There she encountered an old woman who was sitting at a spinning wheel.

Caption 32, Fairy Tales - Sleeping Beauty

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In this example, it is clear that the woman already began doing what she was doing ("sitting at a spinning wheel") before Sleeping Beauty entered the room. In each of the following examples, one action was already happening when the other occurred:

But when the Princess opened her eyes the next morning,

she was surprised that a good-looking prince was standing there.

Captions 26-27, Fairy Tales - The Frog King

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I'm sorry, I was eating chips. What did you say?

Caption 12, The Ellen Show - Ellen Inspired Adele's New Song

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Further Learning
To get more context for the phrases, watch the videos above on Yabla English. Make sure you understand which action came first. For a thorough description with more examples, you can also refer to this page. 

Irregular Verbs - Part 1

Irregular Verbs - Part 3

In last month's first part, we saw how a regular verb conjugates into the past tense and past participle by simply adding -ed to the end of the infinitive: ask/asked, talk/talked, watch/watched etc. Irregular verbs, on the other hand, each follow their own set of rules of conjugation. There are, however, some more basic patterns that can help you remember how to conjugate some of these irregular verbs. 

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Some verbs switch their central vowels to an "o" in the past and past participle, such as the verbs "to break" (broke, broken),"to choose" (choose, chosen), "to forget" (forgot, forgotten), "to freeze" (froze, frozen), "to get" (got, gotten), "to speak" (spoke, spoken), "to tear" (tore, torn) "to wake" (woke, woken) and "to wear" (wore, worn). Here is the verb "to steal" in the past and past participle:

 

Then they took you away, stole you out of my life

Caption 41, Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans

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They've stolen my heart away. 

Captions 49-50, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie

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Many verbs with "ee" as the central vowels change to a single "e" in past and past participle, and these are made easier in that the past and past participle forms are the same: "to bleed" (bled), "to feel" (felt), "to keep" (kept), "to lead" (led), and "to meet" (met). A few more examples using the verbs "to sleep" and "to feed":
 

The Frog slept all night and it was hardly light.

Caption 8, Fairy Tales - The Frog King

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They have fed quite well.

Caption 53, Nature & Wildlife - Search for the Ghost Bear

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Further Learning
Find examples of the verbs listed above in past and past participle and learn them by searching for examples on Yabla English to see them used in a real-world context.