Hyphens are one of those keyboard symbols that are so poorly understood that they’re either wildly overused or avoided altogether. They certainly have their place in writing, but they shouldn’t be thrown into text willy nilly, whenever it “feels right.” To help you understand hyphens a little bit better, here’s a list of guidelines to keep in mind when considering whether to hyphenate.
DO:
Hyphenate when two or more words are coming together to act as a single adjective before a noun. For example, you would write “well-known leader” or “high-quality performance.”
Add a hyphen for compound numbers that are spelled out, like twenty-four or ninety-six.
Include a hyphen when it’s necessary to avoid awkwardness or confusion. For instance, “re-sign” needs a hyphen, or else it will be confused with “resign.” Or, you might say “re-elect” instead of “reelect” so the two e’s aren’t smashed together.
Use a hyphen to separate certain prefixes or suffixes from the root word. This really just depends on the situation. To give you an example, you should typically hyphenate with prefixes like “self” and “all” or suffixes like “elect.” So, you would write “self-esteem,” “all-knowing,” and “president-elect.” In addition, you should hyphenate between a prefix and a capitalized word, such as with “pro-American,” and between numbers and letters, such as with “mid-1800s.”
Hyphenate certain compound words. Unfortunately, this is subjective as well. Some compound words are written separately, some are pushed into a single word, and some are broken up by hyphens. So you just have to memorize which compound words are treated which way. To give you a few examples, some hyphenated compound words include: “merry-go-round,” “editor-in-chief,” and “son-in-law.”
Insert a hyphen to break up a word that starts on one line and ends on the next. This is probably the most familiar hyphen guideline, but there are frequently forgotten rules associated with this:
- Make the break between syllables and at the hyphen of hyphenated words.
- The first line should have at least two letters and the hyphen, and the second line should have at least three letters.
- Never break up a one-syllable word like “write” or “send.”
- Don’t divide proper nouns or proper adjectives, such as Missouri or Canadian.
DON’T:
Don’t hyphenate -ly adverbs. As was mentioned earlier, compound modifiers that come before a noun should be hyphenated. However, if the first word is an adverb ending in -ly, it’s actually incorrect to use a hyphen. This is because the “ly” inherently signals that it’s modifying a word, meaning it would be redundant to also include a hyphen. So, instead of saying “clearly-proven” or “financially-viable,” you would say “clearly proven” or “financially viable,” even before the noun the phrase is modifying.
Don’t insert a hyphen in compound modifiers that come after a noun. To use the examples from earlier, you would say “He’s a well-known leader” and “He’s a leader who is well known.” Or, “That was a high-quality performance” and “That performance was high quality.” See the difference? All you have to do is figure out which side of the noun it’s on.
Don’t include hyphens with compound parts consisting of proper nouns or proper adjectives. For instance, even when used as compound modifiers before a noun, you would say “New Age” rather than “New-Age” and “African American” rather than “African-American.”
So, how do you feel about hyphens now? This was a quick overview, so there are other examples and exceptions out there, but this general information should help you feel more confident in your understanding of hyphens and when to use them. Are you confident enough to answer the question, “To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?”
Please feel free to leave a comment to share what you learned or ask lingering questions.
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