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Hyphenation

Hyphenation

Hyphenation

(OP)
One of the most underutilized forms of punctuation is the hyphen. Even in this forum, I often see examples of missing hyphens.

The prompt for this post was the following statement in another eng-tips forum: "And some cash in hand jobs." My first reading caused me to do a double take - it reads like the capital allocation plan of a low-end pimp. Then I realized what they meant: "And some cash-in-hand jobs." Very different meanings, huh?

Other examples (some from this forum) are: "check-out lane," "target-rich environment," "free-fire zone," or "well-known person."

Remember, whenever two or more words function together as an adjective before a noun, they're to be hyphenated.

RE: Hyphenation

Let us not forget the hyphen's big brother, the dash.

NanoMan's original post uses a hyphen where a dash is required.  He should have written "My first reading caused me to do a double take -- it reads like...".

Is my concluding punctuation correct in the previous sentence?  Is there are rule for a sentence that ends with a truncated quote?

RE: Hyphenation

Mint Julep:
Your quotes are correct.  I looked that up some time ago when questioning the grammar of some of my own posts on this forum.

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RE: Hyphenation

(OP)
Good catch, MintJulep. I've become so accustomed to Word's automatic substitution of the dash for the hyphen in such cases that I've become careless.

With respect to the terminal punctuation question, my reference, A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker, has the following example:

Before falling into a coma, the victim whispered, "It was a man with a tattoo on his...."

Proper use quotations has always been a bit of weak spot for me, though.

RE: Hyphenation

Not sure I understand, what is the difference between dash and hyphen?

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RE: Hyphenation

NanoMan's original post explained the use of the hyphen nicely.

See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_overvw.html

for a nice explanation of the dash.

On an actual typewriter a dash is created by two hyphens in a row.  If you type two hyphens using MS Word it will automatically create a dash (at least this is the default for US-English versions).

RE: Hyphenation

MintJulep,
Giving you a star because I was going to ask exactly what electricpete did until I read his post. However, it seems almost like hyper-legalization to disinguish between hyphen and dash but I can see how it would certainly depend on context.

The link you provide was helpfull until I got to "... And material introduced after a single dash may be more emphatic and may serve a greater variety of rhetorical purposes than material introduced with a colon...."  So now I am confused again.  When he/she says "single dash" does he/she mean double hyphen?

I had no trouble understanding nanomans' original post so this distinction seems superfluous.  Language is confusing enough without making unecessary rules.  Sorry if I seem to be ranting.  I am interested in y'alls' comments.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Hyphenation

Metaman,

 I  didn't write the rules, I just try to follow them.

Yes, a single dash is a double-hyphen.

RE: Hyphenation

Why bother to say single dash... is there such thing as a double dash?

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RE: Hyphenation

I rest my case!

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Hyphenation

(OP)
Does anybody know the usage difference between the en dash and em dash as shown in the MS Word Common Symbols?

RE: Hyphenation

In addition to what has been said, hyphens are used, from what I can recall, to separate identical letters as in book-keeping, pre-eminent, re-entry. Another use would be when nouns are formed from prepositional verbs: build-up, get-together, set-up, shake-up. Another to avoid ambiguities: high schoolgirl vs high-school girl, a little-used car vs a little used-car. Fractions, whether nouns or adjectives, and some words beginning with anti, non and neo, use hyphens.

RE: Hyphenation

Before falling into a coma, the victim whispered, "It was a man with a tattoo on his...."

Quite apart from wondering just what part of his anatomy had been tattooed, Word wouldn't like that sentence.

Too many dots...

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RE: Hyphenation

Please refer to Thread1010-102152 about 4-dot ellipsis use.

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RE: Hyphenation

En dashes are pretty rare, and it's more or less acceptable to use hyphens instead, since there was never a typewriter convention for them (like two hyphens make an em dash).  

In the following examples, just to distinguish them from hyphens which also occur in the examples, I'll use two hyphens for the en dash, but the convention is to use a single hyphen (which is why no one knows what en dashes are for any more).

En dashes are used in ranges ("3--5") and connections between equal things (as opposed to modifiers) as in "Atlanta-Boston train route" or "nickel--cadmium battery", and sometimes to hyphenate compounds ("New York--style cheesecake", "hot-mix--cold-laid asphalt").

Hg

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