Meaning & use
self-service or self-service
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
A way of asking which spelling is right: the hyphenated adjective self-service, or the two separate words self service.
Grammar: Used as a heading or question about spelling; it is not used inside a normal sentence as a meaning.
Patterns
- self service or self-service?
- write self-service or self service
The label on the form said 'self service or self-service', so I checked the style guide.
In a search box, people often type self service or self-service to find out which one is correct.
adjectivebefore a noun
Describing a shop, machine, or system where customers help themselves instead of being served by staff.
Grammar: Comes before a noun and is usually written with a hyphen: a self-service buffet.
Patterns
- self-service + noun
- a self-service counter
- self-service checkout
The hotel has a self-service breakfast from seven to ten.
Please pay at the self-service checkout near the door.
noununcountable
A system in which customers take what they need and pay without help from an employee.
Grammar: No article and no plural; talk about self-service in general or in one place.
Patterns
- go self-service
- offer self-service
- switch to self-service
The café switched to self-service to save money on staff.
Self-service is common in airports and large supermarkets.
Common combinations
- self-service checkout
- The self-service checkout would not read my coupon.
- self-service buffet
- Dinner was a self-service buffet with three hot dishes.
- self-service station
- We stopped at a self-service station to fill the tank.
- go self-service
- Many small banks have gone self-service in recent years.
- self-service counter
- Collect your tray at the self-service counter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- help-yourself
- Informal and mainly spoken; it describes the same idea but is not used in formal signs or business writing.
- automated
- Focuses on machines doing the work rather than customers serving themselves, so it fits ticket machines better than a buffet.
Opposites
Word family
- self-serve adjective
- Informal shortening of self-service, common in American English: a self-serve gas station.
- service noun
- The general idea of helping customers, of which self-service is one type.
Commonly confused: self-service or self-service or self-service or self service? self-service or self-service or self-serve?
self-service or self-service vs self-service or self service
These are not two different words; they are two ways of writing the same term. The hyphenated form is the standard one in edited writing.
self-service or self-service vs self-serve
Self-serve is the shorter, more casual form used mainly in North America, while self-service is the neutral form used in signs and business English.
Practice
Which sentence uses the standard written form correctly?
Choose one answer.
Before a noun, the standard form is hyphenated: self-service check-in. Option 0 leaves out the hyphen, option 2 joins the words with nothing between them, and option 3 uses a dash instead of a hyphen.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “self-service or self-service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.