Grammar-Quizzes.com

good bye

good-bye

goodbye

bird feeder, bird nest (bird words in transition)

bird-dog, bird-watch

birdhouse, birdseed, birdcage, birdbath

house painting, house building

house-raising, house-sitting

housecleaning, housekeeping, housewarming

vice president, vice admiral (vice words in transition)

vice-consul, vice-chancellor, president-elect

viceroy

on line

on-line

online

electronic mail

e-mail

email (not formally accepted but often used as one word)

Web site
 

website (not formally accepted but often used as one word)

Use a hyphen between two nouns of equal importance:

 singer-songwriter, city-state, producer-director,
hocus-pocus, wheeler-dealer, goody-goody, walkie-talkie, no-no

Use a hyphen between two numbers spelled out:   tens and units (21 – 99):

AP  "when large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a word ending in -y to another word: twenty-one, fifty-five, etc."

CMOS spells out numbers one to ninety-nine; AP & APA spell out numbers one to nine)

I counted sixty-five.

She is twenty-one.

BUT: I met her in 1991. Do not spell out the names of years.

Use a hyphen between two letters to avoid a word that can be misread:
Including the hyphen visually separates the final letter of the prefix and the initial letter of the root word.

reenter  re-enter; reelection  re-election, antiitch anti-itch, coopt  co-opt, deice de-ice, shelllike  shell-like, nonnative non-native (but not cooperate and coordinate) mutiply  multi-ply

Use a hyphen to distinguish homonyms:
Including the hyphen more easily differentiates one word from another word with a closed spelling.

recreation re-creation; unionized un-ionized, remark  re-mark, resign re-sign, reserve re-serve; recover re-cover

Use a hyphen to split a word to accommodate a fixed sentence length in print:

Use a hyphen to link two nouns that modify another noun:

The Menlo-Atherton train station, The California-Nevada border

Use a hyphen to clarify a modifier and a noun:
(hyphens and readability; CMOS 7.85)

[three foot] stools   three-foot stools; 

Use a hyphen to link multiple words together as modifiers:
(multiple hyphens; CMOS 7.88)

The forget-me-not state flower
He is a Jack-of-all-trades guy.
If you are a  do-it-yourself person, don't call us for an estimate.
We offer one-to-one classes at convenient times.

Use a hyphen to link a modifying fraction:

a one-half inch piece (adj.)  but not one half of Congress (n.)
a quarter-mile run (adj.) ; a half-mile race  but not a half mile (n.);

Use a hyphen to link a modifying number:

an eight-hour day, a two-week vacation; a 40-hour-work week, It was a two-thousand-twenty-six dollar-fine, a fourteenth-century church, twenty-first century literature, a sixteen-year-old girl, a ninety-year-old woman; a third-floor apartment

Use a hyphen to link a modifying color:

emerald-green lake, coal-black eyes   but emerald green (n.) coal black (n.)
purplish-pink paint, purple and pink paint  but black-and-white paint

Use a hyphen to indicate an inexact amount: (odd)

sixty-odd people

Use a hyphen to link an adjective and a noun modifier:
(adjective+noun; CMOS 7.9)

small-state senators, high-stakes gambling, middle-class neighborhood, kilowatt-hour meter, same-sex marriage, a tenure-track position

Use a hyphen to link a modifying adverb (not ending in -ly):   ill-, well-, lesser-, little-, much-, best-, most (CMOS 7 .86)

ill-favored project, well-known person, little-known fact, best-selling novel, most-skilled workers

Use a hyphen to link a modifying -ing participle: (before and after the noun)

mind-blowing experience, thirst-quenching drink, tongue-lashing speech; cutting-edge technology, chopping-block technique

Use a hyphen to link a modifying -ed participle:  (before and after the noun)

web-based course, fast-paced movie, double-padded shoulders, open-mouthed jar, mass-produced cars; dressed-up people, stuffed-shirt executive

  cross-, full-, ex-, ever-, e-

cross-country race, a full-length mirror, the ever-present road congestion,ex-boyfriend, e-commerce web site

- free, -sided, -fold, -elect 

a toll-free number, a nicotine-free cigarette, wood-sided house, four-fold recipe, president-elect, mayor-elect;

Use a hyphen to link a proper noun and an adjective:

Afro-American  woman (but not African American) Greco-Roman wrestling; Franco-American Studies Center (but not French Canadian or Latin American)

Use a hyphen to link a relationship term: (-in-law, great-, self-)

sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law, great-grandmother,
self-knowledge study, self-educated man, self-possessed child

Use a hyphen to link a modifying prefix with a proper noun or number:
Separate a prefix from a proper noun with a hyphen.

pro-British forces, anti-Semitic statement (prefixes with proper nouns), pre-1900 coin (prefixes with dates), mid-1985 to late 1986 music, pro-American magazine, un-American activities

Use a hyphen to link a range of time:
(hyphen with word space; CMOS 7.89)

thirty- and sixty-minute massages; twenty- to thirty-five people; five- or ten-minute intervals

Use a hyphen to link a range or variation:
(hyphen with word space; CMOS 7.89)

long- and short-term memory; over- and under-worked employees; small- and large-scale construction projects, pre- and postnatal care, macro- and microeconomics
 

Cross-Country Skiing

Cross-country Skiing

Cross-Country Skiing

Self-Actualization Workshop

Self-actualization Workshop
 

Self-Actualization Workshop

Ever-Present Road Congestion

Ever-present Road Congestion

Ever-Present Road Congestion

President-Elect Barack Obama

President-elect Barack Obama

President-Elect Barack Obama

City-States in Nineteenth Century Europe

City-states in Nineteenth Century Europe

City-States in Nineteenth Century Europe

A Series of Web-Based Courses

A Series of Web-based Courses

A Series of Web-Based Courses

Cutting-Edge Nanotechnology

Cutting-edge Nanotechnology

Cutting-Edge Nanotechnology

Self-Sustaining City of the Future

Self-sustaining City of the Future

*Self-Sustaining City (participles often lowercase)

Full-Fashioned Clothing

Full-fashioned Clothing

Full-Fashioned Clothing    (participles often lowercase)

Over-the-Counter Testing Kits

Over-the-counter Testing Kits

BUT: Over-the-Counter Testing Kits   (article)

Bread-and-Butter Basics

Bread-and-butter Basics

BUT: Bread-and-Butter Basics  (conjunction)

E-Flat Minor Melody

E-flat Minor Melody
 

BUT: E-flat Minor Melody; (flat – sharp)

Franco-American Studies Center

Franco-American Studies Center

Franco-American Studies Center

Anti-American Protestors Storm Embassy 

Anti-American Protestors Storm Embassy 

Anti-American Protestors Storm Embassy  

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs

BUT: Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs

BUT: Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Treatments

Pro-Reagan Viewpoints  (proper noun)

Pro-Reagan Viewpoints  (proper noun)

Pro-Reagan Viewpoints  (proper noun)

Pro-life Viewpoints (Hyphenate when coining words that denote support for something.) 

BUT: Prolife Viewpoints (closed in CMOS; hyphenated in AP)

BUT: Prolife Viewpoints (not a proper noun)

Fifty-Piece Orchestra Plays Sold-out Hall

Fifty-piece Orchestra Plays Sold-out Hall

Fifty-Piece Orchestra Plays Sold-out Hall

Fifty-One Violinists Compete for Title

Fifty-one Violinists Compete for Title

BUT: Fifty-one Violinists Compete (spelled number) 

*Twenty-First-Century Furnishings ("first" if lowercase, would look inconsistent)

*Hand-me-downs  (lowercase short unstressed elements)

*Write-ins and Cross-outs  (lowercase short unstressed elements)