Hyphens!

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Hyphens!

• UWF Writing Laboratory
• Mini-Lesson 67
• 51/158 474-2029

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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?

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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.

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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)

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• 3. 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)
• 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.

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Exceptions

• 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 youre in doubt.

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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.
• Nancys exhusband is an antifeminist.
• Nancys 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.

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Remember to differentiate between a hyphen and a
dash.

• HYPHEN (to separate words)
• -
• DASH (to separate sentences)
• --