Some writers boggle at these little pieces of punctuation and attempt to write in such a way to avoid them, but. Googles survey of publications shows that nonfiction is way more popular than nonfiction but both are in regular use. Usually, you can tell whether a hyphen is necessary by applying common sense and mentally excluding one of the words in question, testing how the words would work together without the hyphen. Jul 27, 2010 this is known as a suspensive hyphen or suspended hyphen. A hyphen can also be used to avoid duplicated vowels and tripled consonants antioppression, preempt, hilllike. A dash is longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Generally, hyphens are used to join two words or parts of words together. Selfpublished writers should use the rules of book formatting to create professionallooking books. A hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements. We use em dashes to add emphasis to the size of the car. The typical computer keyboard lacks a dedicated key for the en dash, though most word processors provide a means for its insertion. However, since the programs arent infallible, some stray double hyphens may remain, so if youre copyediting on hard copy, youll want to mark each em dash no matter. A twelveyearold girl was found alone in the large house.
How to use the hyphen, en dash and em dash ndash mdash, n. A hyphen is a standard key on the keyboard of a computer. Nov 03, 2010 hyphens are the short lines that separate the words in the expressions nonenglish and exhusband when to use hyphens. If you are uncertain how to insert an en dash symbol, you can use a hyphen instead. A common word with a hyphen such as postbox will also be seen as post box and postbox. Hyphens are often used to tell the ages of people and things. Some writers boggle at these little pieces of punctuation and attempt to write in such a way to avoid them, but this is a shame, as hyphens can be handy. Hyphens are used to connect two independent words, so they function as one unit. Online sensation grammar girl makes grammar fun and easy in this new york times bestseller. The hyphen is still the only sort of dash on a normal computer keyboard. Its also important that when you set off a phrase using em dashes that you used one em dash immediately after the noun the phrase is describing and one immediately after the phrase. The two are sometimes confused because they look so similar, but their usage is different. Never use a hyphen in place of a colon or dash for emphasis or to denote a break or pause.
A hyphen is the glue that joins a prefix to a word. Learn details of english grammar on hyphen or dash. Sure, its possible that your readers will not notice or care that your hyphenation is incorrect or missing, but when it comes to writing in professional situations, your credibility may be at stake. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. The dash is a punctuation mark that is similar in appearance to the hyphen and minus sign but differs from these symbols in length and, in some fonts, height above the baseline. The hyphen, in contrast, is used to show a break in words. Hyphens belong to that category of punctuation marks that will hurt your brain if you think about them too hard, and, like commas, people disagree about their use in certain situations. Aug 02, 2014 book design basics use hyphens for justified type the worlds greatest book posted on august 2, 2014 by dave bricker august 3, 2014 h yphens are an important contributor to elegant, easytoread typography, especially when text is fully justified as is the convention in book typography. Usage varies both within english and in other languages, but the usual convention in printed english text is as follows.
Use a hyphen in a compound modifier when the modifier comes before the word its modifying. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. The hyphenation feature in word is typically turned off by default, so many of our word docs arent. Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by. Mar 10, 2018 using a typewriter, you had to use two dashes for the mdash and spacehyphenspace as a rough replacement for the n dash.
Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation, such as the commas after iowa and 20 in the following examples without dash. Dont replace the second em dash as some tend to with a comma or semicolon. In my experience, usage of the hyphen both in formal and informal writing is often haphazard. Hyphens english grammar today cambridge dictionary. It is used when hyphenated words occur in sets of two or more and the first or second part of the compound is only used once. Even though the three marks look almost the same, they serve different purposes.
When you finish the complete idiots guide to grammar and style, second edition, your written work will be as sharp as your appearance. After realizing her fans were asking the same questions over and over, mignon decided to focus her attention on those words that continuously confound the masses. Writers also use them to add clarity never use interchangeably with dashes and never leave spaces around a hyphen. Dec 14, 2012 if the adjectives come after the noun, then they dont need a hyphen. Millions of people around the world communicate better thanks to mignon fogarty, aka grammar girl, whose toprated weekly grammar podcast has been downloaded more than 30 million times. Hyphens are not separated by spaces, while a dash has a space on either side.
Mr bruffs guide to gcse english language mr bruffs guide to gcse english literature. No, but their proper use is part of the process that makes a writer stand out as exceptional. Hyphens english grammar today a reference to written and spoken english grammar and usage cambridge dictionary. Hyphens are the short lines that separate the words in the expressions nonenglish and exhusband when to use hyphens.
When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, mostbut not allstyle books advocate putting space neither before nor after them. Its longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Then, after you space after the word after the dash, most word processing programs will turn those two little hyphens into a dashlike so. Keep in mind, though, that this is a matter of style, not grammar, and were talking about the commonly observed convention in published writing. Hyphen errors in a written piece are usually only distracting, but they can detract from clarity, whether by wrong placement or omission. They notify the reader that two or more elements in a sentence are linked. The dash is longer and is created by placing two hyphens in a row. The may 1, 20, edition of the ames sentinel arrived in june. For example, in the phrase nicelooking house, the hyphen combines two words, nice and looking, into one compound adjective hyphens are also used to indicate any span or range, such as numbers, years, pages, etc.
Daily grammar lesson 421 mechanics punctuation hyphens. Hyphens generally, hyphens are used to join two words or parts of words together while avoiding confusion or. Is a hyphen between the an online postgraduate open day. A rule of thumb for the hyphen is that the resulting word must act as one unit. An em dash or a spaced en dash can be used to mark a break in a sentence, and a pair can be used to set off parenthetical statements. Books similar to grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. Book titles with hyphens these are book titles and subtitles with hyphens. Will anyone get murdered as a result of using the wrong one in the wrong place. In the eleventh edition of the blue book of grammar and punctuation february 2014, and on our website, we are letting the hyphen do the work of the en dash, and the em dash is simply now the dash or long dash.
Rowling, catch22 by joseph heller, the curious incident of the dog in the ni. The associated press style always the outlier insists on spacing both before and after the em dash. Sep 18, 2016 learn the rules for endofline word hyphenation for print books. When numbers are not used as compound adjectives preceding nouns, dont use a hyphen. We usually use a hyphen between the two words in a twopart adjective in which the second part ends in ed or ing. The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. Written with the wit, warmth, and accessibility that the podcasts are known for, grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing covers the grammar rules and wordchoice guidelines that can confound even the best writers. The oxford manual of style once stated, if you take hyphens seriously you will surely go mad. Its not interchangeable with other types of dashes. Books similar to grammar girls quick and dirty tips for. You are the friend, the only friend, who offered to help me. See details about hyphens vs dashes rules explanations.
Hyphenated compound adjectives hyphenated compound adjectives are used before nouns. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. A handy rule, whether writing about years, months, or any other period of time, is to use hyphens unless the period of time years, months, weeks, days is written in plural form. One exception is, of course, when the hyphen is used as a minus sign.
Using a typewriter, you had to use two dashes for the mdash and spacehyphenspace as a rough replacement for the n dash. In this article were going to address hyphenation at the ends of lines in print books. You may notice that wordprocessing programs automatically convert double hyphens into em dashes for you. The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. Grammar girl s helpful resource books could keep us on track. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty tips. Suspense with a dash of humor the letty whittaker 12step mysteries by. The second part of the compound adjective fulltime has been dropped, but the hyphen remains. Learn about punctuation in a simple way with many example sentences using the contents from our english grammar book. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the podcast awards. They look the same, but have entirely different functions.
Use a hyphen, not a slash, to illustrate joint entity or ownership facultystaff newsletter. The en dash is slightly wider than the hyphen but narrower than the em dash. Dashes versus colons grammar girl quick and dirty tips. If youre not sure whether a compound word has a hyphen or not, check your preferred dictionary. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons. Dec 30, 2014 buy my revision guides in paperback on amazon. Traditionally, the endash is the same width as a letter n in a given typeface, but there are no firm standards memorize the dictionary in 46 minutes. More and more words are joined at the hip, not by a hyphen, to make a standalone word. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash, longer than a hyphen.
Besides the regrettable effect of proclaiming that you do not understand the difference, more importantly, this mistake often leads to ambiguity and confusion. Hyphen meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. It is used to indicate a range of values or a relationship between values. This video discusses the en and em dashes and the use of the hyphen. But in books, magazines and other proper printing, typesetters always used the proper dashes. A hyphen is a punctuation mark thats used to join words or parts of words. The method of inserting the other marks varies based on your word processor. Jun 02, 2009 its a minefield and wed rather leave this matter to the printers. The chicago manual of style online is the venerable, timetested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom. The double hyphen is sometimes used in place of the em dash. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in. A hyphens chief function is to merge two or more separate words.
Note how dashes subtly change the tone of the following sentences. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. They come before the noun or pronoun they modify except for the predicate adjective which comes after a linking verb and. Use a hyphen in compounds made up of two or more words used as an adjective adjectives modify or affect the meaning of nouns and pronouns and tell us which, whose, what kind, and how many about the nouns or pronouns they modify. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girl s quick and dirty tips. The hyphen is smaller and comes between words like motherinlaw. The method of inserting the other marks varies based on. The hyphen, en dash, and em dash look similar but are of different lengths. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. Oct 20, 2009 in my experience, usage of the hyphen both in formal and informal writing is often haphazard. Hyphen in lots of scientific writingboth published and unpublishedi see authors use hyphens where they intend to use an emdash. If the adjectives come after the noun, then they dont need a hyphen.
Only the hyphen receives a dedicated key on most computer keyboards. Weve looked at a handful of issues concerning the formatting of print books for those who are selfpublishing first steps in formatting for print and using font styles when formatting for print. Find books like grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing from the worlds largest community of readers. Use a hyphen to show a word break at the end of a line. Hyphens and dashes are two distinctly different punctuation marks and a proper understanding of each will avoid embarrassing mistakes in your writing. Sep 05, 2011 hyphen errors in a written piece are usually only distracting, but they can detract from clarity, whether by wrong placement or omission. Book design basics use hyphens for justified type the worlds greatest book posted on august 2, 2014 by dave bricker august 3, 2014 h yphens are an important contributor to elegant, easytoread typography, especially when text is fully justified as is the convention in book typography. Dashes, like commas, semicolons, colons, ellipses, and parentheses, indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. Sure, its possible that your readers will not notice or care that your hyphenation is incorrect or missing, but when it comes to writing in professional. The en dash is used to represent a span or range of numbers, dates, or time.
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