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Mild-Mannered Devil © by Sandy Van Doren
Posted by
Penny Rader
on Sunday, August 17, 2014
Labels:
About writing,
Grammar,
Punctuation,
Sandy Van Doren,
Talking Technical
"-" 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)
About WARA
Wichita Area Romance Authors (WARA) is a group of talented authors who are serious about writing for publication. WARA was established to help writers realize their dream of being published and to provide support for writers of romantic fiction. We count several published authors among our members.
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