Table of Contents
What words can be hyphenated?
There are five types of words that should be hyphenated:
- Compound adjective + noun. When you use a compound adjective before the noun, you should hyphenate:
- Age + noun. If age is being used as an adjective before the noun, you should hyphenate:
- Numbers 21 through 99.
- Some prefixes.
- For clarity.
What are the examples of hyphenated compound words?
Examples of hyphenated compound words include:
- two-fold.
- check-in.
- merry-go-round.
- father-in-law.
- seventy-two.
- long-term.
- up-to-date.
- mother-in-law.
Should family owned be hyphenated?
1 Answer. Both phrases use hyphens correctly to form a compound “phrasal” adjective, family-owned-and-operated: In comparison, the hyphens should indeed be included here: The business was family owned and operated for years.
Do you hyphenate ever so slightly?
When Never to Use a Hyphen (plus exceptions) But when you are using a whole phrase as an adjective, you might use hyphens all the same: “The ever-so-slightly embarrassed salesman continued with his pitch.” Compounds with prefixes such as “pre”, “post” or “mid” are usually used in the closed form: Postpartum.
Should little to no be hyphenated?
If they were not familiar, common and idiomatic phrasal adjectives, they would be hyphenated before a noun, but not otherwise. He had little-to-no time to deal with it. This is not a single phrasal adjective. The ‘little-to-no’ does not act as a single modifier to the noun ‘time’.
Which is an example of a hyphenated word?
Check a dictionary if you’re not sure whether to use a hyphen or not. Here are a few examples of common hyphenated compound words: Hyphenated words tend to become closed compounds (single words with no hyphens) over time. Email instead of e-mail, for example, is increasingly common.
What happens if a word is impossible to hyphenate?
If the word is grammatically impossible to hyphenate the word will be displayed the way you typed it. If the word you are trying to hyphenate does not seem to be a valid word we will try to hyphenate it anyway, but the result might be inaccurate.
What does it mean when a compound has no hyphen?
Open Compound Words. Open compounds are typically made up of two nouns that are used together to represent a single idea. “Open” means that there is a space between the two words and no hyphen. A good dictionary is the best place to check whether a compound is open or not.
When is an adjective hyphenated before or after a noun?
A hyphenated compound adjective can include an adverb. The compound is hyphenated if it appears before a noun but not if it appears after a noun. Exceptions to this would be compounds with an adverb ending in -ly; they would not be hyphenated before or after a noun.