I think it may be just that tendency of German (and it gets *really* nice and long if you leave the middle in!) that makes German teachers of English grammar harp on the compounds in particular - over-avoidance ;). But once you have things drilled into you... though it's really only 'anymore' for me - I still do it with noun compounds, like 'fireplace' or 'tabletop' (although I work for a Scot, and he writes a lot of compound nouns too, so it might be dialect-related? Or German-influenced? I'm all for natural evolution of language, really, but 'anymore'... throws me out of a fic like a trout on the fishing rod ;).