How hyphens are like harnesses

Twice this week I’ve had people ask me:
“Hey, what’s the difference between those lines—you know the short lines and the long lines—between words?”

I love this question because it makes me think of my days as a proofreader at my university newspaper when I learned all about the origins of and difference between:

hyphens (-)

en dashes (–)

& em dashes (—)

A hyphen is the shortest and is easily found on your keyboard. An en dash is the width of a typical capital “N” in typesetting while the em dash is the width of an “M.”

There are no spaces before and after hyphens or en dashes, and usually not around em dashes. However, the AP (Associated Press) Style Guide does require spaces so you’ll see them in some newspapers, and it’s a hard habit to break for those of us who started out in journalism.

Today we’re going to look at hyphens, and next week I’ll tackle the difference between the en dash and the em dash. 

HYPHENS

I think of a hyphen as the harness that connects two horses pulling the same cart (see photo above). It’s a line that connects two words that are working together to modify a noun. 

Hyphens can join:

• adjective + adjective
  • Ex. cat-friendly hotel; open-door policy
• adjective + present participle
  • Ex. delicious-smelling dinner; fast-acting medication
• adjective + past participle
  • Ex.  community-based learning; well-known actor

Note: You only need to hyphenate these modifiers when they come BEFORE the noun. If the “cart” appears before the “horse”, then you don’t need a “harness” (hyphen).

• Ex. They need to find a hotel that is cat friendly. (no hyphen)

You also won’t hyphenate and adverb + adjective working together. A general rule is if the first modifier begins in -ly, you won’t add a hyphen.

• Ex. highly respected journalists, extremely embarrassing tweets

Hyphens are also used to connect:

• Compound words 
  • Ex. brother-in-law; editor-in-chief; six-pack
    • Note: some compound words have lost their hyphens over time. Remember when  “email” used to be “e-mail”?
• Spelled-out numbers (twenty-one to ninety-nine)
  • Note: we normally spell out numbers under 10 and use numerals for the rest, but always write out numbers when they begin a sentence. 
    • Ex. “Fifty-two senators voted against the bill.”
• Numbers that are part of an adjective “team.” 
  • Ex. fourth-story apartment; 30-minute speech; nine-year-old boy
    • But, “The boy was nine years old.”
• Fractions 
  • Ex. half-baked plan; every quarter-hour; two-thirds majority
• Prefixes
  • Ex. ex-wife; self-sufficient; all-inclusive 

Stay tuned next week to learn about en dashes and em dashes!