Sing Along with Me!

Have you ever been to a sing-along? How about a read-along or a ride-along? Each of these events, whether in a concert hall, a library, or a fire engine, is designed to foster or serve community. The word along conveys an invitation to join in an activity. 

But you may have seen advertisements for a “sing-a-long,” where the word along is broken into two syllables. This spelling creates visual balance at the expense of meaning. How does one sing a “long”? And where does community come in?

Creating compounds brings words together; it never breaks them apart. Names like Whac-a-Mole (a mallet game) and descriptors like select-a-size (used on product packaging) may encourage writers to isolate the syllable a. But these examples don’t break any words; they’re simply made of three units rather than two. The a in the middle is a word in itself—unlike the a in sing-along, which is part of the adverb along. Even the -athon of walkathon, talkathon, and so on is a “combining form” (“-Athon”), not a separating form (so don’t break out the hyphens to create a “walk-a-thon”).   

When a compound, hyphened or not, contains an adverb like about, along, around, or away, remember to keep the adverb whole. It may help to remember that the word along is an invitation to community—so keep it together!

Work Cited

“-Athon” (Noun combining form). Merriam-Webster, 2024, unabridged.merriam-webster.com/collegiate/-athon.