Hyphen - Punctuation

Hyphens (-) are the short lines that we put between words.

ex-husband
blue-green

Uses

1. Two-word compound adjectives are hyphenated when the second word ends in -ed or -ing.

green-hued
blue-eyed
broken-hearted

Other two-word adjectives which contain the sense of 'between' are also often hyphenated.

Indo-Pak relations
Anglo-French connections
blue-green (between blue and green)
The New York-Paris flight.

Longer phrases used as adjectives before nouns are also often hyphenated.

an out-of-work singer

2. Two-word compound nouns are hyphenated when the first word is stressed.

running-shoes
bus-driver
paper-shop

3. The prefixes co-, non- and ex- are sometimes separated from what follows by hyphens.

co-operation
non-alignment
ex-husband

Notes

Nowadays there is a growing tendency to avoid hyphens. Most common short compounds are now written as single words with no separation between them.

weekend
takeover

Less common or larger compounds are written as completely separate words.

living room

Custom Search

Subscribe and win a grammar eBook

Subscribe to our feed by email and win an eBook titled '120 Grammar and Vocabulary Mistakes to Avoid'.

The download link will be sent by email. Please make sure that you have enabled links and images in your email.