Mastering Hyphens: Correct Usage and Examples
Learn about the correct usage of hyphens in various scenarios, including separating compound modifiers, setting off prefixes, and exceptions to hyphenation rules. Explore examples to practice proper hyphen placement and understand the distinction between hyphens and dashes. Enhance your writing skills with this comprehensive guide.
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Writing Lab Hyphens
Hyphen Use The hyphen is most commonly used to separate a word that is divided by the right hand margin, but a hyphen also has the following conventional uses: To separate the parts of a compound modifier or multiword adjective when the modifier/ adjective precedes the word that it modifies (e.g. When he is out of town, he uses out-of-town checks. ). To separate compounds of equal weight (e.g. male- female relationships).
Hyphen Use cont. To set off prefixes of words beginning with the prefixes well-, all-, self-, and ex- (e.g. all-purpose, ex-wife, well-informed, and self-centered ). To set off some compound nouns (e.g. mother-in- law ) or to set off prefixes before a proper noun or adjective (e.g. all-American ). To separate numbers from twenty-one to ninety- nine and fractions such as two-thirds.
Exceptions to the Hyphen Do not hyphenate words that begin with the prefixes pre-, un-, re-, inter-, non-, multi-, bi-, semi-, up-, over-, and intra (e.g. preschool, rearrange, overworked, intercollegiate, multicultural, bipartisan, nonviolent, bipartisan, and semisweet ). Occasionally, hyphens are used to avoid confusion (e.g. re-solve instead of resolve ). Consult a dictionary when you re in doubt.
Lets Practice! Incorrect: Air traffic was so dense that afternoon that air traffic control could hardly cope. Correct: Air traffic was so dense that afternoon that air- traffic control could hardly cope. Incorrect: Nancy s exhusband is an antifeminist. Correct: Nancy s ex-husband is an antifeminist. Incorrect: My mother in law works for a quasi official corporation that does two thirds of its business with the government. Correct: My mother-in-law works for a quasi-official corporation that does two-thirds of its business with the government.
Hyphens and Dashes Remember to differentiate between a hyphen and a dash. Hyphen (to separate words) DASH (to separate sentences) --
Thats all, folks! This lesson is part of the UWF Writing Lab Grammar Mini-Lesson Series Lessons adapted from Real Good Grammar, Too by Mamie Webb Hixon To find out more, visit the Writing Lab s website where you can take a self-scoring quiz corresponding to this lesson
