is a letter or set of letters placed before a root word. Examples: semi-invalid; inter-related; 6. Hyphens are not the same as dashes. With Compound Modifiers. Q: Thanks. En dashes. Short dashes — technically, en dashes — aren’t as showy as their wider cousins, but they’re still useful. Hyphens showing word breaks. Writers often hyphenate prefixes when they feel a word might be distracting or confusing without the hyphen. In short, a hyphen links words together. A hyphen (-) is used to connect two words that function as a particular concept, or when linked together form a particular modifier. Here, small-town is used as an adjective even though it contains a noun (town). Do not hyphenate proper nouns of more than one word when they are used as compound adjectives. Examples: When to use a hyphen. Hyphens with Numbers . Non-hyphenated is an example of a hyphenated word. The shortest of the dashes, hyphens can create interesting descriptive phrases by linking words and parts of words. Mayor-elect Smith Often words with a prefix or suffix will use this mark to separate the prefix or suffix from the root word. Guidance counselors can help with decision-making abou… This page has examples of using hyphens in compound nouns and an interactive exercise. Find out more in a Bitesize KS2 English guide. #thisjustgotweird. If you’re not sure whether a compound word has a hyphen or not, check your preferred dictionary. Moreover, different manuals of style have different rules for using hyphens. If that’s the case, it will look like this; The nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries were politically turbulent. Omitting the hyphen would cause confusion with repress. On a Mac, hold down the Option key and type the minus sign located at the top of the keyboard. Incorrect: the finely-tuned watch. mid-July. When in doubt, look it up. Use a hyphen when joining a letter with a word, as in an A-frame house. Incorrect: 300 - 325 people Hyphen usage is something to notice when you are reading. It is used to divide a word into two syllables at the end of a line of text so that a long word does not disturb the spacing of the line where it is used. A hyphen is “a short line (-) used to connect the parts of a compound word or the parts of a word divided for any purpose.” To type a hyphen just use the key after the 0 on your keyboard. Hyphen or no hyphen? one thousand two hundred twenty-one dollars. “Computer related” is a compound adjective and whether or not you should use a hyphen depends on where it is located in the sentence. When used predicatively (usually after the verb to be), compound adjectives are not usually hyphenated. A loose rule is to use a hyphen when modifying another word. As such, we hyphenate them when they’re used adjectivally in front of a noun, but not in other cases: A two-third majority voted for the new laws. If a word at the end of a line already has a hyphen, try to break the word at that punctuation mark rather than introducing another one. It’s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Rule 4. Use a hyphen when two or more words act as a single adjective before a noun. The punctuation mark should not be confused with dashes (–, —), which are generally longer. Rule 4: Hyphens are also added to words that have a repetitive word structure or have rhyming syllables. self-report; self-esteem; the test was self-paced; Exception: self psychology. A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark that is used to join words or to separate the syllables of a single word. Note: Most publishers use the slightly longer en dash instead of a hyphen in this situation. Suffixes form new words or alter the original word to perform a different task. Search. Many writers forget the second hyphen: Without the second hyphen, the sentence is about an "old child.". 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