The Write Place 2010
Revised by Nichole Held
Adapted from Jane Strauss: www.GrammarBook.com
Hyphen Rules
The hyphen ( ‐ ) is a punctuation mark used to join words.
It is often confused with dashes ( –, —, ― ), which are longer and have different uses, and
with the minus sign ( − ) which is also longer.
Rule One:
Most often, you will hyphenate between two or more adjectives when they come before a
noun and act as a single idea. This is the most common use of the hyphen.
Examples: friendly-looking man
(Hyphenate: compound adjective in front of a noun)
friendly little girl
(Do not hyphenate: not a compound adjective)
brightly lit room
(Do not hyphenate: Brightly is an adverb describing lit, not an
adjective.)
Rule Two:
When adverbs not ending in –ly are used as compound words in front of a noun, hyphenate the
words. When the combination of words is used after the noun, do not hyphenate the words.
Examples: The well-known actress accepted her award.
(Hyphenate: Well is an adverb followed by another descriptive
word. They combine to form one idea in front of the noun.)
The actress who accepted her award was well known.
(Do not hyphenate: Well known follows the noun it describes, so
no hyphen is used.)
A long-anticipated decision was finally made.
He got a much-needed haircut yesterday.
His haircut was much needed.
Rule Three:
To check whether a compound noun is two words, one word, or hyphenated, you will want to
look it up in the dictionary. If you can’t find the word in the dictionary, treat the noun as
separate words.
Examples: eyewitness, eye shadow, eye-opener