When a person is identified by their age with the phrase “seven-year-old,” for example, the phrase is hyphenated whether it modifies child, boy, girl, and so on or the noun is implied. Adding or Omitting Hyphens When Referring to Ages or Physical Dimensions
HOW TO AUTO HYPHENATION IN WORD REGISTRATION
Phrases telling the reader to do something in which the first word is a verb and the second is a preposition are not hyphenated: “Sign in at the registration table.” (The phrase is hyphenated, however, when it modifies a noun: “Go to the sign-in table.”) 8. Adding Hyphens to Adverbial PhrasesĪdverbs are not attached to adjectives when they team up to modify a noun: “The slowly melting ice rendered the river crossing a perilous enterprise.” However, the presence of an adverb does not negate the need for a hyphen in a phrasal adjective that follows it: “Hers was an eloquently sharp-tongued response.” 7. Note, however, the difference in nearly identical-looking compound verbs and open compound nouns: “I’m going to test-drive it tomorrow,” but “I’m going to take it on a test drive tomorrow.”Īlso, consider the subtle difference between gerunds formed from a hyphenated compound verb that are followed, or not followed, by an object: “I was spot-checking the report when I found a serious error,” but “I’m going to do a little spot checking.” 6. Omitting Hyphens in Verb PhrasesĬompound verbs, those consisting of more than one word, are hyphenated ( test-drive) or closed ( troubleshoot) the dictionary will let you know which form to employ. Sometimes, prefixed words that would otherwise be closed up retain a hyphen to distinguish them from otherwise identical-looking words, such as re-cover as opposed to recover and re-creation as distinct from recreation. Omitting Hyphens from Potential Homographs Another exception is words beginning with c preceded by co-, because to many people, terms like co-chair look awkward without a hyphen. Note, however, that this is not true in the case of e (preempt). Exceptions include when the root word is a proper name ( pre-Christian) and when the prefix ends and the root word begins with an i ( anti-inflammatory). Prefixes, on the other hand, are almost always closed up to the root word. (Popular treatment of long-hyphenated compounds changes so rapidly that dictionaries change them in new editions to reflect prevailing usage pigeonhole - formerly pigeon-hole - is just one example.) 3. As you see from these examples, compounds including the same particular word are not necessarily treated the same compounding is a random process related to usage. Adding Hyphens to Compound WordsĬompound words come in three forms: open (“sand dollar”), hyphenated ( sand-blind), and closed ( sandbag). (Leave them open after a noun, however.) If you can’t find them in your well-thumbed dictionary, attach them - and don’t hesitate to link more than two words: “The company instituted a pay-as-you-go plan.” 2. Some phrasal adjectives (including “civil rights,” “stock market,” and “high school”) don’t require hyphenation when they appear before a noun they’re so well entrenched in the language that no risk of ambiguity exists, and their status is enshrined by inclusion in dictionaries.īut when two words team together to describe a noun, they’re usually hyphenated. I’ve written more than once about hyphens, including this previous post, but it remains a troublesome topic, so I’ll approach it from this direction, too: the categories of hyphenation errors. With an AutoCorrect entry: If it's just your wife's name that you always want to exempt from hyphenation, format it as "Do not check spelling or grammar" and then save it as aįormatted AutoCorrect entry that will be inserted when you type your wife's name or some shortcut for it.10 Types of Hyphenation Errors By Mark Nichol.) and apply it to words you don't want hyphenated. Define a character style (if you need help with that, see With a style: This approach is explained at.Manually: Select the word and go to Review | Language | Language and check the box for "Do not check spelling or grammar.".A more selective approach is to format the specific word as "Do not check spelling or grammar." Disabling proofing also disables hyphenation.If you can get away with having no hyphenation in an entire paragraph, open the Paragraph dialog, select the Line and Page Breaks tab, and check the box for "Don't hyphenate.".
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