2. • “There are a great many hyphens left in
America. For my part, I think the most un-
American thing in the world is a hyphen.”
Woodrow Wilson, 1919
1856-1924
Former US President, 1912-1920.
Re-elected in 1916.)
3. Uses of the Hyphen
• 1. To avoid ambiguity.
▫ A re-formed musical group.
▫ (The group separated and then came back
together)
▫ A reformed musical group.
▫ (The group had “problems/issues” but has
since changed for the better)
▫ A long-standing friend. (Friend for a long
time)
▫ A long standing friend. (The friend has been
standing upright for a long time)
4. • 2. Spelling out numbers.
• Twenty-three.
• Forty-two.
• 3. Linking nouns to other nouns.
• The London-Brighton train.
• American-French relations.
• Tarzan the ape-man.
5. • 4. A noun phrase modifying another noun.
▫ Stainless steel – not hyphenated, just an
adjective modifying a noun.
▫ Stainless-steel kitchen – “stainless steel”
works as a noun phrase, and the hyphen
prevents reading it as a stainless kitchen
made out of steel.
6. • 5. Certain (but not all) prefixes.
• Un-American
• Anti-Communist
• Quasi-grammatical
• But not:
• Prejudice
• Subordinate
7. • 6. Spelling out words
• Muammar Qaddafi’s name has been
spelled:
• G-h-a-d-d-a-f-i
• K-a-d-d-a-f-i
• G-a-d-h-a-f-i
• K-h-a-d-a-f-y
• (and over 30 other variants)
8. • 7. To avoid “letter collision” in compound
words:
• Shell-like, not Shelllike
• Re-elect, not reelect.
• De-ice, not deice.
9. • 8. Use a hyphen to divide words at the end of
a line if necessary, and make the break only
between syllables:pref-er-ence
sell-ing
in-di-vid-u-al-ist
• 9. For line breaks, divide already-hyphenated
words only at the hyphen:
• mass-produced
self-conscious
10. When does a word stop being
hyphenated?
• Through repeated use, typically.
• Previous hyphenated words:
• To-morrow
• Sub-marine
• Good-bye
11. What’s the difference?
• Little-used car.
• Little used car.
• Pickled-eggs salesman.
• Pickled eggs salesman.
