Learn English Translation and Essay Writing

Hyphen (-)

The hyphen (-) a small bar found on every keyboard has several related uses. In every case, it is used to show that what it is attached to does not make up a complete word by itself. The hyphen must never be used with white spaces at both ends, though in some uses it may have a white space at one end.

1-     A hyphen is used to indicate that a long word has been broken off at the end of a line.

Examples:          

They were angry at having to listen to those utterly inconse-

quential remarks.

One should avoid such word splitting whenever possible. If it is unavoidable, try to split the word into two roughly equal parts, and make sure you split it at a syllable boundary.  If you are in doubt as to where a word can be split, consult a dictionary. Many good dictionaries mark syllable boundaries to show you where words can be hyphenated. Best of all, many word processors will perform hyphenation automatically, and you won't have to worry about it. In any case, note that a hyphen in such a case must be written at the end of its line, and not at the beginning of the following line.

2- The hyphen is also used in writing compound words which, without the hyphen, would be ambiguous, hard to read or overly long. Here, more than anywhere else in the whole field of punctuation, there is room for individual taste and judgment; nevertheless, certain principles may be identified. These are:

1-     Above all, strive for clarity;

2-     Don't use a hyphen unless it's necessary;

3-     Where possible, follow established usage.

It is usually essential to hyphenate compound modifiers. Compare the following:

1-     She kissed the baby good night.

2-     She gave the baby a good-night kiss.

The hyphen in the second example is necessary to show that good-night is a single compound modifier. Without the hyphen, the reader might easily be misled: The reader might be momentarily confused into thinking that she had given him some kind of "night kiss", whatever that means. Here are some more examples:

1-     Her dress is light green.

2-     She's wearing a light-green dress.

3-     This book token is worth ten pounds.

4-     This is a ten-pound book token.

5-     She always attends the parties at the end of term.

6-     She always attends the end-of-term parties.

7-     This essay is well thought out.

8-     This is a well-thought-out essay.

9-     Her son is ten years old.

10-She has a ten-year-old son.

Use hyphens liberally in such compound modifiers; they are often vital to comprehension: a light-green dress is not necessarily a light green dress; our first-class discussion is quite different from our first class discussion; a rusty nail cutter is hardly the same as a rusty nail-cutter; a woman-hating religion is utterly different from a woman hating religion! You can mislead your reader disastrously by omitting these crucial hyphens: She always attends the end of term parties does not appear to mean the same as the hyphenated example above .

 Compare the following examples:

1-     a long-standing friend ≠ a long standing friend

2-     well-defined rules ≠ well defined rules

3-     a copper-producing region≠ a copper producing region

4-     a low-scoring match≠ a low scoring match

5-     little-expected news≠  little expected news

6-     a green-eyed beauty≠ a green eyed beauty

7-     a salt-and-pepper moustache≠ a salt and pepper moustache

8-     a far-ranging investigation≠ a far ranging investigation

9-     her Swiss-German ancestry≠ her Swiss German ancestry

10-her new-found freedom≠  her new found freedom

The correct use or non-use of a hyphen in a modifier can be of vital importance in making your meaning clear.

A compound modifier may also require a hyphen when it appears after the verb. Here is a splendid example from Carey (1958): Her face turned an ugly brick-red appears to mean something very different from Her face turned an ugly brick red.

Old-fashioned usage, especially in Britain, favors excessive hyphenation, producing such forms as to-day, co-operate, ski-ing, semi-colon and even full-stop; such hyphening should be avoided. Much better are today, cooperate, skiing, semicolon and full stop: don't use a hyphen unless it's doing some real work.

Prefixes present special problems. She's repainting the lounge seems unobjectionable, but She's reliving her childhood is possibly hard to read and should perhaps be rewritten as She's re-living her childhood. And She re-covered the sofa [= `She put a new cover on the sofa'] is absolutely essential to avoid confusion with the entirely different She recovered the sofa [= She got the sofa back]. The chemical term meaning `not ionized' is routinely written by chemists as unionized, but, in some contexts, you might prefer to write un-ionized to avoid possible confusion with the unrelated word unionized `organized into unions'. Use your judgment: put a hyphen in if you can see a problem without it, but otherwise leave it out. As always, consult a good dictionary if you're not sure.

There are three cases in which a hyphen is absolutely required after a prefix:

 First, if a capital letter or a numeral follows:

1-     non-EC countries

2-     un-American activities

3-     pre-Newtonian physics

4-     anti-French feeling

5-     post-Napoleonic Europe

6-     pre-1500 English literature

Second, if the prefix is added to a word which already contains a hyphen:

1-     non-bribe-taking politicians

2-     his pre-globe-trotting days

3-     non-stress-timed languages

4-     an un-re-elected politician

Third, if the prefix is added to a compound word containing a white space. In this case, the white space itself must be replaced by a hyphen to prevent the prefixed word from becoming unreadable:

1-     seal killing

but anti-seal-killing campaigners

2-     twentieth century

but pre-twentieth-century music

3-     cold war

but our post-cold-war world

In any case, do not go overboard with large and complex modifiers. The cumbersome anti-seal-killing campaigners can easily be replaced by campaigners against seal-killing, which is much easier to read.

The hyphen may also be used in representing ranges of numbers, and occasionally also other ranges A representation of the form X­-Y means `from X to Y' or `between X and Y'. Here are some examples:

1-     These fossils are 30­-35 million years old.

2-     The London- Brighton vintage car rally takes place on Sunday.

3-     The declaration of the Rome­-Berlin axis led to the use of the label `Axis powers' for Germany and Italy.

Finally, the hyphen has one rather special use: it is used in writing pieces of words. Here are some examples:

1-     The prefix re- sometimes requires a hyphen.

2-     The suffix -wise, as in `money-wise' and `health-wise', has become enormously popular in recent years.

Only when you are writing about language you likely need this use of the hyphen. If you do use it, make sure you put the hyphen at the correct end of the piece-of-a-word you are citing , that is, the end at which the piece has to be connected to something else to make a word. And note that, when you're writing a suffix, the hyphen must go on the same line as the suffix itself: you should not allow the hyphen to stand at the end of its line, with the suffix on the next line. Word processors won't do this automatically, and you will need to consult your manual to find out how to type a hard hyphen, which will always stay where it belongs.

There is, however, one very special case in which you might want to write a piece of a word in any kind of text. Consider the following example:

Pre-war and post-war Berlin could hardly be more different.

There is another way of writing this:

Pre- and post-war Berlin could hardly be more different.

This style is permissible, but observe that now isolated prefix pre- requires a hyphen, since it is only a piece of a word.

The same thing happens when you want to write a piece of a word which is not normally hyphenated, in order to avoid repetition.

Examples:

Natalie is studying sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics.

This can also be written as follows:

Natalie is studying socio- and psycholinguistics.

The hyphen is also used in writing numerals and fractions.