Hyphens, Dashes, & Parentheses
Chapter 11
Here’s the idea…
Hyphens, dashes, and parentheses
help make your writing clear by
separating or setting off words or parts
of words.
Hyphens
Use a hyphen if part of a word must be carried
over from one line to the next.
• The word must have at least two syllables to
be broken.
Correct: num-ber
Incorrect: co-de
For example
Ms. Walsh was extremely happy when her friends came to
visit Chicago.
Hyphens
• Always separate words between syllables
Correct: let-ter
Incorrect: lette-r
Hyphens
• You must leave at least two letters on each
line
Correct: twen-ty
Incorrect: a-cross
Hyphens
• Use hyphens in certain compound words.
Examples:
half-dollar
great-grandmother
Hyphens
• Use hyphens in compound numbers from
twenty-one (21) through ninety-nine (99)
Examples:
sixty-three
twenty-six
Hyphens
• Use hyphens in spelled-out fractions
Examples:
two-thirds
three-fourths
Let’s Practice!
When I take my cousins to the carnival,
they love to go on the merry go round.
My brother is thirty five years old.
When I make oatmeal for breakfast, I
have to include one fourth cup of
boiling water.
My great grandmother was
named Ottilia.
Last winter was terrible; it was extremely cold out
side.
My dad gets along well with my
grandmother; his mother in law.
Mrs. Lilly had a busy summer planning for her wedding.
Next year, my brother will turn
twenty one.
The cookie recipe called for two-thirds
of a cup of sugar.
Dashes
Use dashes to show an abrupt break in thought.
Example:
Louis Braille –who lost his sight at age threeinvented an alphabet for blind people.
Dashes
Another example:
Ms. Walsh - who fell and broke her arm at age
10- is deathly afraid of bunk beds.
Parentheses
Use parentheses to set off material that is
loosely related to the rest of a sentence.
Example:
Each six-dot cell stands for a character (a letter
of the alphabet, a number, a punctuation mark,
or a contraction).
Parentheses
Another example:
Mr. Agnew ate a pear (a yellow colored fruit) at
lunch today.
Let’s Practice!
Decide: Should you use dashes or parentheses?
My favorite holiday is Halloween ___ Kit Kats are
my favorite candy.
My mom grew up on a farm __ she likes to tell
stories about her childhood __where they raised
cattle and grew crops.
It’s fun to run a marathon __ which is 26.2 miles
in length __ as long as you have trained
properly.