Hyphen (-)
Hyphens are used to link words and parts of words. They are not as common today as they used to be, but there are three main cases where you should use them:
o in compound words
o to join prefixes to other words
o to show word breaks
Hyphens in compound words
Hyphens are used in many compound words to show that the component words have a combined meaning (e.g. a pick-me-up, mother-in-law, good-hearted) or that there is a relationship between the words that make up the compound: for example, rock-forming minerals are minerals that form rocks. But you don’t need to use them in every type of compound word.
Compound adjectives
Compound adjectives are made up of a noun + an adjective, a noun + a participle, or an adjective + aparticiple. Many compound adjectives should be hyphenated. Here are some examples:
|noun + adjective |noun + participle |adjective + participle |
|accident-prone |computer-aided |good-looking |
|sugar-free |power-driven |quick-thinking |
|carbon-neutral |user-generated |bad-tempered |
|sport-mad |custom-built |fair-haired |
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In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent. Some examples can be seen in the box to the right. Collectively, adjectives form one of the traditional English eight parts of speech, though linguists today distinguish adjectives from words such as determiners that also used to be considered ...
|camera-ready |muddle-headed |open-mouthed |
With compound adjectives formed from the adverb well and a participle (e.g. well-known), or from a phrase (e.g. up-to-date), you should use a hyphen when the compound comes before the noun:
well-known brands of coffee
an up-to-date account
but not when the compound comes after the noun:
His music was also well known in England.
Their figures are up to date.
It’s important to use hyphens in compound adjectives describing ages and lengths of time: leaving them out can make the meaning ambiguous. For example, 250-year-old trees clearly refers to trees that are 250 years old, while 250 year old trees could equally refer to 250 trees that are all one year old.
Compound verbs
Use a hyphen when a compound formed from two nouns is made into a verb, for example:
|noun |verb |
|an ice skate |to ice-skate |
|a booby trap |to booby-trap |
|a spot check |to spot-check |
|a court martial |to court-martial |
Phrasal verbs
You should NOT put a hyphen within phrasal verbs – verbs made up of a main verb and an adverb or preposition. For example:
|phrasal verb |Example |
|build up |You should continue to build up your pension. |
|break in |They broke in by forcing a lock on the door. |
|stop off |We stopped off in Hawaii on the way home. |
If a phrasal verb is made into a noun, though, you SHOULD use a hyphen:
|Noun |Example |
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CONTENT Introduction... 3 Main body 1. Language acquisition... 42.The stages of language acquisition... 52. 1. The pre linguistic stage... 72. 2.Babbling... 72. 3. One-word utterances... 92. 4.Two-word utterances... 102. 5. Telegraphic speech... 132. 6.Language learning during the pre-school period... 163. The critical period... 174. The summary of behaviour's to expect of children with normally ...
|build-up |There was a build-up of traffic on the ring road. |
|break-in |The house was unoccupied at the time of the break-in. |
|stop-off |We knew there would be a stop-off in Singapore for refuelling. |
Compound nouns
A compound noun is one consisting of two component nouns. In principle, such nouns can be written in one of three different ways:
|one word |two words |hyphenated |
|aircrew |air crew |air-crew |
|playgroup |play group |play-group |
|chatroom |chat room |chat-room |
In the past, these sorts of compounds were usually hyphenated, but the situation is different today. The tendency is now to write them as either one word or two separate words. However, the most important thing to note is that you should choose one style and stick to it within a piece of writing. Don’t refer to aplaygroup in one paragraph and a play-group in another.
Hyphens joining prefixes to other words
Hyphens can be used to join a prefix to another word, especially if the prefix ends in a vowel and the other word also begins with one (e.g. pre-eminent or co-own).
This use is less common than it used to be, though, and one-word forms are becoming more usual (e.g. prearrange or cooperate).
Use a hyphen to separate a prefix from a name or date, e.g. post-Aristotelian or pre-1900.
Use a hyphen to avoid confusion with another word: for example, to distinguish re-cover (= provide something with a new cover) from recover (= get well again).
Hyphens showing word breaks
Hyphens can also be used to divide words that are not usually hyphenated.
They show where a word is to be divided at the end of a line of writing. Always try to split the word in a sensible place, so that the first part does not mislead the reader: for example, hel-met not he-lmet; dis-abled not disa-bled.
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I. Introduction With increasing communication in the world and acceleration of economic globalization, English advertising has found its way into people’s life. Every day, people are exposed to a large number of advertisements no matter whether they like them or not. But what is advertising? What are the objectives of advertising? What are the functions of advertising? And what significance does a ...
Hyphens are also used to stand for a common second element in all but the last word of a list, e.g.:
You may see a yield that is two-, three-, or fourfold.
