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Thank you so much all for supporting and wrote back to my previous question?

They are 15-year-old girls

They are 15-year-olds

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  • They have the same meaning. Unless you want to bring emphasis to the fact that they're girls, you can pick and choose. This question has already been asked. xD
    – MMJZ
    Apr 4, 2014 at 17:17

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Use They are 15-year-olds if it is a group of mixed gender, or if the gender is not relevant to what you are trying to communicate.

Use They are 15-year-old girls if it is important that you communicate that the gender of the group is entirely female.

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They are synonymous in meaning.

15-year-old girls brings emphasis to the fact that they are girls, while 15-year-olds is more ambiguous. Apart from where the emphasis lies, you could pick and choose which you employ.

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If you are using the group of girls as a compound adjective or noun it takes "They are 15-year-olds". On the other hand, it'll be They are 15-year-old girls if you take it as a separate qualifier.

A common rule applies that when it is a counted thing serving as an adjective, the count's object is singular. A 10-hour game, "A 6-foot tall" and so on. Similarly, when it is not that case, the pluralization happens this way -"those 22-year-old" and so on.

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    You bring up an interesting point about hyphens. That said, "those 22 year old" needs a hyphen somewhere. If I'm talking about a group of young trees, I'd say, "Those 22 year-old trees were planted last year; I planted two dozen, but two of them died." On the other hand, if I'm talking about a group of people, I'd say, "Those 22-year-old kids seem like they're looking for trouble" (or, "Those 22-year-olds are acting very mature for their age").
    – J.R. ♦
    Apr 5, 2014 at 10:38
  • @J.R. Thta's true. I just discussed in a session with my teammates. The session was about hyphens. Hyphens are put when they affect the nouns. Those 22-year-old girls were pretty OVER My pug is 12 years old where we don't put hyphen. Edited and corrected. Thanks
    – Maulik V
    Apr 5, 2014 at 11:06

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