Chinese Food Lover

Hyphen Placement

This is my favorite example for illustrating the hyphenation of compound nouns and adjectives.

A Chinese food-lover is a Chinese person who loves food.

A Chinese-food lover is a person who loves Chinese food.

Where would you place the hyphen(s) if it’s a Chinese person who loves Chinese food?

The correct answer is Chinese-food lover. The point is that the person loves Chinese food; their race is irrelevant.