"-" is a mild enough punctuation mark when we're reading. But it's a devil when we want to determine its correct usage.
I'd wager we all know to use a hyphen when splitting a word too long for one line. We'd also hyphenate "blue-green eyes" or "dress of blue-green" or "a you-can't-kid-me book" or "two-thirds finished.
But do we write
bluish green eyes or bluish-green eyes?
life-insurance policy or life insurance policy?
badly written story or badly-written story?
happy-birthday-card or happy birthday card?
eat dirt cheap or eat dirt-cheap?
It is grammatically incorrect to hyphenate the first three choices. Neither example is correct for the fourth line; it should correctly read happy-birthday card. The last line depends on what meaning you want to convey: eating doesn't cost a lot or eating dirt isn't costly.
Sometimes the only help is the dictionary. Sometimes clarity dictates hyphen usage: farmer's co-op or farmer's coop; re-creation (making anew) instead of recreation (having fun). Sometimes a hyphen keeps the reader from getting distracted: belllike or bell-like; antiinflammatory or anti-inflammatory.
A hyphen is no longer preferred to set off a prefix or suffix or divide a word with double consonants: redistribute, not re-distribute. Nor should one separate two different vowels occurring in a word: semiannual, reappear.
Hyphens are always used with some words (half-baked, matter-of-fact) and never with others (high school, life insurance). Everyday usage can change a hyphenated word to a "closed" one (mailman, sunbathing).
Compound nouns are usually not hyphenated: decision making; dictionary consulting. If these words are used as adjectives, then hyphens are required: decision-making process, dictionary-consulting writer. Remember exceptions exist: high school student, life insurance policy.
Compound adjectives occurring before the noun are hyphenated, but not when following it: well-known author, an author well known to readers; a so-called clue, a clue so called by amateurs.
The best advice for using a hyphen is to learn the few "rules" and to judge the phrase's readability on a single read. If the reader is apt to be confused or misled, hyphenate. If your meaning is clear, don't use a hyphen.
It's a wise writer who keeps a dictionary handy as well.
(Originally appeared in WARA's The Prairie Rose "Talking Technical" column, March/Aptil 1995)
0 comments:
Post a Comment