When do you use a hyphen?

One Reply to “When do you use a hyphen?”

1. Don’t worry! Hyphens can be tricky, but once you get the hang of them, it’ll be much easier. Here are some common situations in which you should use a hyphen:

   1. Compound adjectives: When two or more words are combined to describe a noun, you usually hyphenate them if they come before the noun. For example:
   2. a well-known author

   3. a high-quality product

   4. Numbers: Use hyphens for numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine when they are spelled out:

   5. twenty-five

   6. eighty-seven

   7. Prefixes and suffixes: Sometimes, you need a hyphen to avoid confusion or clarify meaning, especially with prefixes like “co-“, “re-“, “ex-“, and “self-“:

   8. co-worker
   9. re-evaluate

   10. self-esteem

   11. Avoiding ambiguity: If not using a hyphen could create confusion, use one to clarify. For example:

   12. “small-business owner” (one owner of a small business) vs. “small business owner” (could imply multiple small businesses owned by one or more people).

   13. Line breaks: If a word needs to be divided at the end of a line, you can use a hyphen to split it:

   14. in-cred-ible

   Remember, hyphens are different from dashes (which are used to create a pause in a sentence) and underscores (which are often used in digital formatting).

   If you’re ever unsure, consulting a dictionary or style guide can be really helpful too! Keep practicing, and you’ll improve over time.

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