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English Punctuation 2
Hyphen
The hyphen is used in compound adjectives when those adjectives are placed before a noun as an attribute
e.g. She bought high-quality shoes.
The hyphen is essential in this case as it helps make the meaning clear. The absence of the hyphen here may convey the idea that she bought high-heeled shoes of good quality.
English is really versatile. Many words result from the combination of other two. Compound adjectives, for example, consist of combinations of adjectives, nouns, numerals, verbs, adverbs and the like. These combinations are joined by a hyphen.
All-important
small-time
However, we need no hyphen when the first word is an adverb ending in –ly
e.g. a badly organized essay
In combinations of figures, measurements and indications of time; we use the hyphen and the unit of measure in the singular when the combination acts as an attribute, i.e. it comes before the noun.
e.g. a five-hour delay
my four-year old daughter
a two-year lease
a six-year sentence
However, the hyphen disappears and the unit of measure is used in the plural, when the combination is used predicatively.
e.g. We had to put up with a delay of four hours.
My daughter is four years old.
It is rather common in English to use phrasal compounds. When used as attributes of nouns, these phrases are joined by hyphens.
e.g. We cannot talk about this over the phone; it has to be done face to face.
But
e.g. We had a face-to-face conversation and all was settled.
In certain cases, the hyphen can clarify meaning and avoid clashing letters with prefixes.
Let´s analyze the prefix re- for example; it needs no hyphen when it means “again”: rewrite, redo, rethink, etc.
But when re- does not mean “again” and there is the possibility of confusion with an identical word that has a different meaning, we use a hyphen.
e.g. He resigned yesterday. Now he has to look for a new job.
But
e.g.We will have to re-sign the contract; there was a mistake in it.
The hyphen also helps to separate two identical adjacent letters, usually vowels.
e.g. re-enter co-operate glow-worm
Use the hyphen after self, non and co; and before like
e.g. self-service non-religious co-worker ant-like insect
When expressing dates and routes, the hyphen may be used instead of the word to.
e.g. the 1939-45 world war
the Paris-Madrid railway line
It is important to point out here that we should never write:
From 1939-1945
The correct version would be:
From 1939 to 1945 or between 1939 and 1945
The hyphen can be used as word divider at the end of the line. In English we have to be careful when dividing words.
a) Divide prefix or suffix and make sure you retain an easily recognizable root.
e.g. careful-ly
sleep-ing
b) Avoid dividing words; it is much less complicated to read a complete word than one that has been separated into smaller pieces.
c) You should always write the hyphen at the end of the line, not at the beginning of the next one.
d) If you have to split up a word, divide it by syllables. e.g. find-ing not fin –ding
Hyphens are also used when the second part of a compound word takes capital letter:
e.g. pro-Communist
Afro-American
We use hyphens in numbers when a multiple of ten is joined to the unit. Hyphens are not used with parts of higher numbers, though.
e.g. twenty-seven
But
e.g. ten thousand, four hundred and sixty-eight
Hyphens are also used in number and adjective combinations.
e.g. She must be sixty-odd.
The group of workers was seventy-strong
Capital Letters
We must remember to use capital letters at the beginning of a word in the following instances:
If we refer to members of religious orders
e.g. Sister Teresa of Calcutta, Father Jones, etc.
For personal titles with or without a proper name
e.g. Lord Lennon, Lieutenant Keene
Please, Doctor, we would like to listen to your theory.
For personal titles without a name when we refer to a person holding a specific job
e.g. The Headmistress decided not to penalize the kid.
In poetry, we use a capital letter for the first word in each line of a poem
It is important to remember not to use capitals for:
Brackets or parentheses mark off explanations and comments from the rest of a sentence. The writing inside the brackets does not depend from the rest of the comment and it may be removed without altering the meaning of the clause.
e.g. The lion cubs (there were a couple of them) were getting bigger and wilder.
As mentioned above, the writing inside the brackets is independent of the rest of the sentence and thus should be punctuated separately. Full stops are not used inside brackets unless they mark an abbreviation. In the case of question marks, we must consider whether the comment within brackets or the whole sentence is a question, to place the question mark correctly.
e.g. I have just finished reading Shakespeare (have you read Hamlet?).
Or
Would you like to go out with me on Saturday (I can fetch you from your place)?
It is important to remember that brackets are used in pairs at the beginning and end of the comment.
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English Punctuation 2
Hyphen
The hyphen is used in compound adjectives when those adjectives are placed before a noun as an attribute
e.g. She bought high-quality shoes.
The hyphen is essential in this case as it helps make the meaning clear. The absence of the hyphen here may convey the idea that she bought high-heeled shoes of good quality.
English is really versatile. Many words result from the combination of other two. Compound adjectives, for example, consist of combinations of adjectives, nouns, numerals, verbs, adverbs and the like. These combinations are joined by a hyphen.
All-important
small-time
However, we need no hyphen when the first word is an adverb ending in –ly
e.g. a badly organized essay
In combinations of figures, measurements and indications of time; we use the hyphen and the unit of measure in the singular when the combination acts as an attribute, i.e. it comes before the noun.
e.g. a five-hour delay
my four-year old daughter
a two-year lease
a six-year sentence
However, the hyphen disappears and the unit of measure is used in the plural, when the combination is used predicatively.
e.g. We had to put up with a delay of four hours.
My daughter is four years old.
It is rather common in English to use phrasal compounds. When used as attributes of nouns, these phrases are joined by hyphens.
e.g. We cannot talk about this over the phone; it has to be done face to face.
But
e.g. We had a face-to-face conversation and all was settled.
In certain cases, the hyphen can clarify meaning and avoid clashing letters with prefixes.
Let´s analyze the prefix re- for example; it needs no hyphen when it means “again”: rewrite, redo, rethink, etc.
But when re- does not mean “again” and there is the possibility of confusion with an identical word that has a different meaning, we use a hyphen.
e.g. He resigned yesterday. Now he has to look for a new job.
But
e.g.We will have to re-sign the contract; there was a mistake in it.
The hyphen also helps to separate two identical adjacent letters, usually vowels.
e.g. re-enter co-operate glow-worm
Use the hyphen after self, non and co; and before like
e.g. self-service non-religious co-worker ant-like insect
When expressing dates and routes, the hyphen may be used instead of the word to.
e.g. the 1939-45 world war
the Paris-Madrid railway line
It is important to point out here that we should never write:
From 1939-1945
The correct version would be:
From 1939 to 1945 or between 1939 and 1945
The hyphen can be used as word divider at the end of the line. In English we have to be careful when dividing words.
a) Divide prefix or suffix and make sure you retain an easily recognizable root.
e.g. careful-ly
sleep-ing
b) Avoid dividing words; it is much less complicated to read a complete word than one that has been separated into smaller pieces.
c) You should always write the hyphen at the end of the line, not at the beginning of the next one.
d) If you have to split up a word, divide it by syllables. e.g. find-ing not fin –ding
Hyphens are also used when the second part of a compound word takes capital letter:
e.g. pro-Communist
Afro-American
We use hyphens in numbers when a multiple of ten is joined to the unit. Hyphens are not used with parts of higher numbers, though.
e.g. twenty-seven
But
e.g. ten thousand, four hundred and sixty-eight
Hyphens are also used in number and adjective combinations.
e.g. She must be sixty-odd.
The group of workers was seventy-strong
Capital Letters
We must remember to use capital letters at the beginning of a word in the following instances:
- We should always start sentences with a capital letter.
- For proper nouns: people, countries, streets, geographical features, institutions, companies, days of the week, months, towns or cities, languages, political parties, historical periods (the Middle Ages), races (Asians), organizations and festivals(Ramadan)
- For the different names of the Deity (God, Allah, etc.) or pronouns referring to God. If we refer to pagan gods, the capital letter is used only for their names (Eros, god of love)
- Adjectives derived from proper nouns take an initial capital (Roman, Spanish)
- The initial capital is used in family relationships (except for brother, sister and cousin) when we use the relationship word alone.
e.g. Grandmother is quite angry with us. - Use initial capital in family relationships (except for brother and sister) when we write the relationship word plus a proper name.
e.g. Sister Teresa of Calcutta, Father Jones, etc.
e.g. Lord Lennon, Lieutenant Keene
Please, Doctor, we would like to listen to your theory.
It is important to remember not to use capitals for:
- Seasons (summer, winter, etc.)
- Compass points if they are not part of the name of a region (North Korea)
- School subjects (history) except for languages (Spanish)
Brackets or parentheses mark off explanations and comments from the rest of a sentence. The writing inside the brackets does not depend from the rest of the comment and it may be removed without altering the meaning of the clause.
e.g. The lion cubs (there were a couple of them) were getting bigger and wilder.
As mentioned above, the writing inside the brackets is independent of the rest of the sentence and thus should be punctuated separately. Full stops are not used inside brackets unless they mark an abbreviation. In the case of question marks, we must consider whether the comment within brackets or the whole sentence is a question, to place the question mark correctly.
e.g. I have just finished reading Shakespeare (have you read Hamlet?).
Or
Would you like to go out with me on Saturday (I can fetch you from your place)?
It is important to remember that brackets are used in pairs at the beginning and end of the comment.
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