How and where to use hyphen. Do you know how to use Hyphen? Are you putting it right?

M. Nasser Gorsi, ESL lecturer, Linguistics expert

Hyphen (-) is a kind of punctuation mark that is used to join two words. Its usage is called hyphenation. Please don't confuse it with longer dash or minus. I have tried to explain

its use in the following rules:

1. We use hyphen between two words when they come before a noun to modify it.

For example: an off-line website, state-of-the art weapons, back-up plan, etc.

2. We also use hyphen to mention a new, original, unusual compound nouns to avoid confusion.

For example: 1. Video-grapher, Sub-Editor, Sub-Divisional, etc.

3. Do not use hyphen for adverb very and adverbs ending in -ly.

For example: 1. very-good person, 2. Finely-tuned person. (Both are incorrect)

But we can say friendly-looking cat or family-oriented person.

4. We can use hyphen while mentioning somebody's age.

For example: 1. a two-year-old child, 2. a 30-year-old man. We use hyphen and they are used in singular. Please do not write plural form of noun after hyphen since we use a before it. We can also mention age without using hyphen like 40 years old man, three years old child, etc.

5. You may use hyphen if you feel that it solves your problem.

For example: We have a few more-important plans to work on.

6. We can hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.

For example: 1. Forty-two students, 2. Two thousand three hundred.

I work as a Sub-Editor in a newspaper. I suggest you kindly read a good-edited newspaper and underline hyphenated words for a few days for your calibration.

I hope, I have been successful in clearing some doubts and teaching a few new things.

Regards

M. Nasser Gorsi

Cambridge English Teacher