The categories listed below often overlap, so don’t worry too much about whether your intended use of the colon fits one category perfectly.

Hyphenate prefixes when they come before proper nouns or proper adjectives. On a Mac, hold down the Option key and type the minus sign located at the top of the keyboard. Examples: an off-campus apartment state-of-the-art design.

This advice applies mainly when joining whole words with each other.

However, when leaving out a hyphen will cause confusion, one should be added. The hyphen makes concealed-weapons a compound adjective, so the reader knows that the writer meant a permit for concealed weapons. There’s no consensus on how to hyphenate terms like this. With number ranges, you can remove the first digit of the second number if it’s the same as the first number’s. Read the following passage. However, hyphenate most double last names. In the United States, the term hyphenated American refers to the use of a hyphen (in some styles of writing) between the name of an ethnicity and the word "American" in compound nouns, e.g., as in "Irish-American".It was an epithet used from 1890 to 1920 to disparage Americans who were of foreign birth or origin, and who displayed an allegiance to a foreign country through the use of the hyphen. Most prefixes do not need to be hyphenated; they are simply added in front of a noun, with no spaces and no joining punctuation necessary. co-worker

Examples: Another deviation from the basic rule: adverbs ending in “ly” aren’t hyphenated. Writers using familiar compound verbs and nouns should consult a dictionary or look online to decide if these verbs and nouns should be hyphenated.

Generally, hyphenate two or more words when they come before a noun they modify and act as a single idea. mid-July. Do not hyphenate half brother or half sister. Never hesitate to add a hyphen if it solves a possible problem. My great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War.

Examples and Observations "The hyphen continues to serve us, often by removing ambiguity from sentences. a twentieth-century throwback.

state-of-the-art design. thirty-two children It is always better to get an overview of compound words and their types before starting. Rule 6. Correct: She is an Academy Award nominee. And that’s where things get difficult. Do not hyphenate proper nouns of more than one word when they are used as compound adjectives. one thousand two hundred twenty-one dollars.

Prefixes expand or change a word's meaning, sometimes radically: the prefixes a, un, and dis, for example, change words into their opposites (e.g., political, apolitical; friendly, unfriendly; honor, dishonor).

Some familiar phrases may require hyphens. But it tells the reader that he need not wait for the noun to know what’s new.

Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words. While most of our site should function with out, we recommend turning it back on for a better experience. The hyphen in between 1912 and 1992 should be an en-dash: 1912–1992. Titles of Books, Plays, Articles, etc.

300–325 people.

With no hyphen we get coworker, which could be distracting because it starts with cow. For clarity, many writers hyphenate prefixes ending in a vowel when the root word begins with the same letter.

Some type of punctuation is needed after “his 1952 composition 4′33″.” An em dash would be a good option here: Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″—a performance of the absence of deliberate sound.

an ice-cream cone

Generally, there are no set rules or etiquette when it comes to deciding exactly how your hyphenated last name will read.

de-ice This rule applies only to adverbs.

There is also an “en dash”—whose length is between that of the hyphen and the em dash, and its best usage is to indicate inclusive dates and numbers: It can also be used for flight or train routes. (Because years is plural. Is the dash used correctly in the following sentences?

Use of the hyphen is far from standardized. Here are some examples of such word blends, typically written as single words: The dash functions almost as a colon does in that it adds to the preceding material, but with extra emphasis. graffiti-ism Although the preceding hyphens help clarify unusual terms, they are optional and might not be every writer's choice. Do not use article before the names of countries unless the name suggests that the country is made up of smaller units or constituent parts. Rule 3. You’re on your own.

Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine. See my post for sources; An extensive list of all English Hyphenated words.

More than one-third of registered voters oppose the measure. re-elect. Sign up to receive the FREE weekly GrammarBook.com E-Newsletter. But that doesn’t matter. Rule 5.

Use discretion—and sometimes a dictionary—before deciding to place a hyphen before a suffix. Rule 7. Rule 1. Suffixes form new words or alter the original word to perform a different task. So maybe: ‘His new fur-coat-wearing boss.’ But that looks odd.”. an off-campus apartment

1999-2016

Correct: A five-and-one-half-foot-long sign. That is, a “fur coat-wearing boss” has the same structure as “surly coat-wearing boss,” with “surly” directly modifying “boss.” What’s surly?

Note that when hyphens are involved in expressing ages, two hyphens are required.

Examples: Rule 2. But we’re getting too far from Lisa’s original question about “his new fur coat-wearing boss.”, Unlike AP’s examples, this compound has more than two words.

For example, if you think “pre1960" is an unambiguous as “pre-1960,” that doesn’t make it right. Correct: 300-325 people. But I’ll save you the trouble: They don’t.

a twentieth century throwback.

With hyphen: Springfield has little-town charm.

For instance, is a book up to date or up-to-date?

the annual dance-athon

There are two commandments about this misunderstood punctuation mark.

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The person, not the coat.

ultra-ambitious If they all agree, you know you have a pretty solid rule on your hands. Other times, when you have a very specific question, there are no rules.

Type the corrected version of the passage in the text frame below: John Milton Cage Jr. (1912-1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. For example, the noun scandal can be made into the adjective scandalous by adding the suffix ous. One article distinguishes hyphens from en and em dashes.. Another talks about open, closed, and hyphenated compound words..

Correct. You can use a colon to draw attention to many things in your writing.

. Jean promised to drop the boys off at the (railroad/rail-road) station. Here are some expressions whose ambiguity can be removed by a hyphen: old furniture dealer, hot cow’s milk, the minister met small businessmen, 30 odd members, a little known city, recovered the sofa, man eating tiger.

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Me? Incorrect: She is an Academy-Award nominee. Rule 2b. The hyphen is requisite. Typically, you do not need to hyphenate words ending in the following suffixes: Also, especially in technical fields, some words commonly used in succession become joined into one. Remembering Jane Straus | May 18, 1954—February 25, 2011 | Author of the original Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.

Some exceptions: -style, -elect, -free, -based. There are many types of compound words one of which is hyphenated compound word usually characterized by hyphen symbol ‘-‘ between the sub-words.

Quotation Marks. Incorrect. Rule 2. This dash connects an affirmation to the initial thought. Musicians who present this piece do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title.

It becomes the verb scandalize by adding the suffix ize. The list contains 1089 words. My grandson and my granduncle never met. Hyphens are not separated by spaces, while a dash has a space on either side.

Remember not to use spaces around hyphens. Rule 2a. Examples: A hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements. For example, the phrases “high-pressure system,” “water-repellent surface,” and “fuel-efficient car” would not make sense without hyphens, because you would not refer to a “high system,” a “water surface,” or a “fuel car.” As your ears and eyes become attuned to proper hyphenation practices, you will recognize that both meaning and convention dictate where hyphens fit best. Incorrect: 300 - 325 people Hyphens' main purpose is to glue words together.

Omitting the hyphen would cause confusion with recover. amyhammond11 Colour vocabulary- synonym sheets : Underline? With no hyphen we get deice, which might stump readers. Rule 1. It can join several different types of things: A rule of thumb for the hyphen is that the resulting word must act as one unit; therefore, the hyphen creates a new word that has a single meaning. We have a two-year-old. Rule 3. We do not use an article when talking about sports and games.

1.

A hyphen after re- is not needed because there is no confusion with another word. Example: The apartment is off campus. It comes from an exhaustive list of all English Hyphenated words 47,589 hyphenated words.

No one believed Hikaru when he said he was (self taught/self-taught) because his skills necessitated the presence of a teacher. Although there are rules and customs governing hyphens, there are also situations when writers must decide whether to add them for clarity.