When Should You Hyphenate Words?

Generally, you need the hyphen only if the two or more words are functioning together as an adjective before the noun they’re describing. If the noun comes first, leave the hyphen out. This wall is load bearing. It’s impossible to eat this cake because it is rock hard.

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When should you use a hyphen?

The Hyphen

  1. Use a hyphen at the end of a line to divide a word where there is not enough space for the whole word.
  2. Use a hyphen to indicate a word spelled out letter by letter.
  3. Use a hyphen to join two or more words to form compound adjectives that precede a noun.
  4. Use a hyphen to avoid awkward doubling of vowels.
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What is an example of a hyphenated word?

Examples of Hyphenated Compound Words
Open compound words include words such as coffee table, dining room, high school, ice cream, and peanut butter. There’s a space between these words, but both parts of the word are necessary.

What words should have a hyphen?

What words should be hyphenated?

  • Compound adjective + noun. When you use a compound adjective before the noun, you should hyphenate:
  • Age + noun. If age is being used as an adjective before the noun, you should hyphenate:
  • Numbers 21 through 99.
  • Some prefixes.
  • For clarity.

What words should not be hyphenated?

Never hyphenate compounds including an adverb (generally, a word ending in ‘ly’), whether attributive or predicative. ‘carefully laid plans’ not ‘carefully-laid plans’. ‘The acting, direction, script and plot were terrible, but at least the wardrobe was high quality. ‘

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What happens if you say hyphen 5 times?

Many people have found that after saying the fifth “hyphen,” their phone’s iOs immediately “crashes” and either restarts their phone completely or closes their current screen and brings them back to their home one. Sounds kind of nerve-wracking, right?

Where do you put dashes?

Use dashes to mark the beginning and end of a series, which might otherwise get confused, with the rest of the sentence: Example: The three female characters—the wife, the nun, and the jockey—are the incarnation of excellence. Dashes are also used to mark the interruption of a sentence in dialogue: Example: “Help!

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What is the rule for hyphenated compound words?

Hyphenated Compound Words
One important rule of thumb to remember is that in most cases, a compound adjective is hyphenated if placed before the noun it modifies, but not if placed after the noun. This is not a good solution for the long term.

Why are some words hyphenated and others not?

Rule 1a. Generally, hyphenate two or more words when they come before a noun they modify and act as a single idea. This is called a compound adjective. When a compound adjective follows a noun, a hyphen is usually not necessary.

Is Top 5 hyphenated?

Hyphenate when top five is used as a compound modifier. Otherwise, no hyphen. Example; The University of Florida is a top-five public university.

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Is it true if you hyphen Siri?

Verdict: Fact. Saying “hyphen” five times using voice input crashes your iPhone, but there’s no need to worry; nothing else happens in the process.

Does the Siri hyphen trick work?

The voice assistant has an amusing bug: if you speak “hyphen” five times using the voice input, your iPhone will shut down all applications and enter emergency mode. There were allegations that this trick might erase all data from the phone on the internet. This proved to be untrue.

Why would dashes be used in a sentence?

Use dashes to set off an idea or an appositive within a sentence. A dash (—) is a punctuation mark used to set off an idea within a sentence and may be used alone or in pairs. Dashes interrupt a thought in a more dramatic way than a phrase enclosed in commas, but less theatrically than parentheses.

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What is difference between dash and hyphen?

A hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements. The two are sometimes confused because they look so similar, but their usage is different. Hyphens are not separated by spaces, while a dash has a space on either side.

What does a dash mean after a word?

pause
A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text (not at the bottom: that’s an underscore). It’s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does.

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What are the 10 examples of compound words?

Examples of Compound Words

  • bullfrog.
  • snowball.
  • mailbox.
  • grandmother.
  • railroad.
  • sometimes.
  • inside.
  • upstream.

Is ice cream one word or two?

It may appear to have two words, but those two words, spoken separately, would have different meanings, so that particular word needs to be spoken in one breath to convey a particular meaning. So ‘ice cream’ is a one word. It has a distinct meaning.

Is $100 bill hyphenated?

I notice that this article uses a couple of different flavours of hyphenation for “one hundred dollar bill”. The title has it “one hundred-dollar bill”, but at the end of the lead it’s given as “one-hundred dollar bill”.

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What are the 20 examples of compound words?

Compound Words List

Under + Underground
Tad + Tadpole
Sweet + Sweetheart
Racquet + Racquetball
Post + Postcard

Is family friendly hyphenated?

There’s a rule for hyphenating compound adjectives like family-friendly: Use a hyphen if it helps. There’s a rule for hyphenating nouns like “mix-up” and verbs like “self-regulate”: Always check a dictionary. There’s a rule for hyphenating prefixes like “co”: Skip the hyphen, “coauthor.”

Is funny looking hyphenated?

Hyphens also work well with compound adjectives that end in a participle: a funny-looking badger, a sun-bleached roof, fire-roasted tomatoes, a money-grubbing thief.

When Should You Hyphenate Words?