Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016
The hyphen and the dash
23 Punctuation
A hyphen is used to divide or syllabify words at the end of a line when the word runs over to the beginning of the next line. It also connects individual words to form a compound word.
Hyphens cannot be used to divide one-syllable words: thought, through, weight, and so on. Hyphens can be used to divide words of two or more syllables.
fun-damental
funda-mental
fundamen-tal
If a word already contains a hyphen, it is generally syllabified using that hyphen.
a mid-life crisis
a cross-cultural conference
A number of everyday words and expressions are hyphenated: U.S. Social Security numbers (666-86-3454), telephone numbers (555-342-4536), and certain compound nouns (two-step) and adjectives (two-way). Following are examples of hyphenated everyday words.
hard-driving
long-winded
out-of-pocket
pitch-dark
six-cycle
twice-told
Yves Saint-Laurent
When dividing words at the end of a line, leave at least two letters at the end of the line and bring at least three letters down to the beginning of the next line.
A dash interrupts the flow of a sentence and sets a separate thought off from the rest of a sentence.
If you find yourself in a dangerous situation, use the two Bs method— back off and breathe in—because otherwise you might panic.
She was thinking of ways of running away—how could she have agreed to be part of this nonsense—but she was stuck.
Exercise 23.10 Insert hyphens and dashes where needed.
1. Eric could not figure out how to get out of the maze how silly and useless he felt!
2. The touchdown scored by the Patriots was an 83 yard play.
3. They were once considered wishy washy.
4. Carla was about to close the front door and thought to herself do I have everything I need in the bag?
5. The tight lipped receptionist told the reporters nothing.
6. She detests animal testing, so she never buys Yves Saint Laurent products.
7. Thirty two of the 52 figure skaters missed at least one of their jumps.
8. The Security Council voted against three crucial resolutions an armed attack, a forced embargo, and unified retaliation.