Hyphens!
UWF Writing Laboratory
Mini-Lesson #67
51/158
474-2029
I am giving you a sign up sheet to distribute
so that students interested in attending the
play can sign up and reserve a seat.
Which two words in the above sentence should
be combined with a hyphen?
I am giving you a sign up sheet to distribute
so that students interested in attending the
play can sign up and reserve a seat.
Which two words in the above sentence should
be combined with a hyphen?
RIGHT!
“sign” and “up”
Without the hyphen, the reader may be
momentarily derailed. The sentence seems
to read as follows:
I am giving you a sign….
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:
1. 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.”);
2. To separate compounds of equal weight
(e.g. male-female relationships);
3. To set off prefixes of words beginning
with the prefixes well-, all-, self-, and
ex- (e.g. “all-purpose,” “ex-wife,” “wellinformed,” and “self-centered”);
4. 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”);
5. To separate numbers from twenty-one
to ninety-nine and fractions such as
two-thirds.
Exceptions
1. 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”).
2. Occasionally, hyphens are used to avoid
confusion (e.g. “re-solve” instead of
“resolve”).
Consult a dictionary when you’re in doubt.
Practice!
Air traffic was so dense that afternoon that air
traffic control could hardly cope.
Air traffic was so dense that afternoon that
air-traffic control could hardly cope.
Nancy’s exhusband is an antifeminist.
Nancy’s ex-husband is an antifeminist.
My mother in law works for a quasi official
corporation that does two thirds of its business
with the government.
My mother-in-law works for a quasi-official
corporation that does two-thirds of its business
with the government.
Remember to differentiate between
a hyphen and a dash.
HYPHEN (to separate words)
DASH (to separate sentences)
--