HYPHENS Prepare to be schooled by Ms. Hanzlick, of course!

What is a hyphen? This thing: - NOT this thing: --

Why Hyphens Matter: ･ Disease-causing poor nutrition, meaning poor nutrition that causes disease ･ Disease causing poor nutrition, meaning a disease that causes poor nutrition. ･ A man-eating shark is a shark that eats humans. ･ A man eating shark is a man who is eating shark meat. ･ A blue-green sea is a sea whose color is somewhere between blue and green. ･ A blue green sea is a contradiction, unless "green" is used contextually to mean something other than a color. ･ Three-hundred-year-old trees are an indeterminate number of trees that are 300 years old. ･ Three hundred-year-old trees are three trees that are 100 years old. ･ Three hundred year-old trees are 300 trees that are each 1 year old.

THE RULES: (1) Use a hyphen to join two or more words serving as a single adjective before a noun: –a one-way street –chocolate-covered peanuts –well-known author

THE RULES: (2) Use a hyphen with compound numbers: –forty-six –sixty-three Our much-loved teacher was sixty-three years old.

THE RULES: Use a hyphen with the prefixes ex- (meaning former), self-, all-; with the suffix -elect; between a prefix and a capitalized word; and with figures or letters: –ex-husband –self-assured –mid-September –all-inclusive –mayor-elect –anti-American –T-shirt –pre-Civil War –mid-1980s

THE RULES: Use a hyphen to divide words at the end of a line if necessary, and make the break only between syllables: –I thought my mother was going to di- vorce my father, but I guess she changed her mind.

THE RULES: Some words are just hyphenated, period: –mother-in-law –step-son

EXAMPLES: Show the if the sentence is correct. Show the  if the sentence is incorrect.

EXAMPLES: He has a high-and-mighty attitude. 

EXAMPLES: You will always find a spic and span kitchen at Ann ’ s house.

EXAMPLES: This enamel has been baked on. 

EXAMPLES: That pan has a baked on enamel. 

EXAMPLES: My mom is forty five years old. 

EXAMPLES: The sixty-two year old man died. 

EXAMPLES: Ms. Hanzlick was born in the early mid- 1980s. 

EXAMPLES: My mother in law is very annoying. 

EXAMPLES: The peanut butter-covered crickets tasted surprisingly delicious. 

EXAMPLES: The fire breathing dragon burned my face off. 

EXAMPLES: Her ex husband is a stupid dummy. 

EXAMPLES: The prize winning poet spoke at my graduation ceremony last year. 