Either I never had any idea when to use a hyphen (and that is possible, I remember having “language arts” instead of English in grade school) or it is falling out of favor, because I rarely see a hyphen where I think it should be.
“John isn’t here, Bill will have to act as a stand in.” I saw this in a book last night. A professional writer and his editer both let it be published.
I would have thought it was “stand-in.” In general, I figure I need a hyphen if two words seem to be acting together as if they were one word. If you pull one of the words out and it doesn’t make sense, you need a hyphen.
Bill will have to act as a stand?
Bill will have to act as a in?
No, the words are acting as one “Bill will have to act as a stand-in.”
Short answer: pick a dictionary you like and go with it. Our office has decreed the Random House Unabridged to be the dictionary. They have “setup” as one word, which looks wrong to me, but wtf, that’s what RH says. (And, yes, I have to look it up every single effin’ time.)
In general, it’s not so much whether a part can stand alone or not, it’s how the phrase functions. For instance, a noun phrase that ordinarily wouldn’t get hyphenated, if it functions adjectivally, does (She topped the salad with bleu cheese; she added a bleu-cheese topping).
I believe the hyphen is used to reduce confusion. When two adjectives are combined to describe a noun, the hyphen lets you know that they are working as a pair. With the original sentence the adjectives “stand in” are at the end of the sentence and thus there’s little confusion on how to read the sentence properly and understand the context. Had the sentence read “John isn’t here, Bill will have to act as a stand in boss” then a hyphen would reduce confusion.
What gets me about the original sentence is that it’s really two sentences that should have been written as:
“John isn’t here. Bill will have to act as a stand in.” or…
“John isn’t here; Bill will have to act as a stand in.”
Actually, that is my poor grammer. That wasn’t even the original sentence. The original was in a geek book and I figured I would make it easier by paraphrasing. The original went something like this: “The Proxy design pattern is used when a class acts as a stand in for another class.” I felt that it should be stand-in.
When a noun phrase is used adjectivally, the parts are joined by a hyphen or hyphens to clarify, as someone noted, that they are to be taken as a unit. “A small engine repairman” is a midget mechanic; “a small-engine repairman” is a man, probably of normal build, who specializes in small engines (lawnmowers, go-karts, etc.). Occasionally it’s appropriate to do this with an adjective phrase, too, as in the second example below.
The boy is thirteen years old. The thirteen-year-old boy kissed a girl for the first time. The girl was erotically aroused. The erotically-aroused girl kissed him back.
When a proper noun becomes part of such a phrase, it’s customary to allow the capitalization hold it together, and only hyphenate the last word. “Hyundai is the world’s largest Republic of Korea-based company.” (That sentence is awkward, and should be reworked for more euphonious style, but it’s grammatically and punctuationally accurate.)
Is twickster an angelic smiley proponent or an angelic-smiley proponent?
Hyphens in triple modifiers are as important: One sentence could have two meanings or end up as plain nonsense if the second one is dropped or both are.
There are three-year-olds attending the preschool.
There are three year-olds attending the preschool.
There are three-year olds attending the preschool.
There are three year olds attending the preschool.
And as twickster said, the ly at the end of the modifier removes the need for a hyphen:
The quickly moving van overtuned on the curve.(No confusion.)
The fast moving van overturned on the curve. (Confusion.)
A hyphen also denotes female virginity. If a girl still has one, custom and tradition demand that we treat her as a virgin. Mary Lurleen has not chosen to display a hyphen, and this doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not a virgin. Mary-Lurleen shows hyphen, so she is treated as a virgin, even if your best friend says he boinked her last Friday under the bleachers.
I love these obscure rules of grammar and manners, don’t you?
And your sig displays the oft-rumoured “broken hyphen” ( – ) variously attributed to sexual activity, vigorous gymnastics (sometimes the same thing) or horseback riding (or all three at the same time, which is something worth capturing on film for the edification of future generations…)
:eek:
The hyphen is the least rigidly codified punctuation mark in English, this side of the comma.
As an editor, my rule of thumb is usually Occam’s Razor: I use a hyphen when doing so reduces confusion; I eschew it when it’s not necessary. In other words, when in doubt, leave it out.
Still, consistency within a document is more important. When I’m editing something for an author who has a hyphen fetish, I just make sure that at least it’s never used incorrectly, and is always consistent.
Some of my general rules:
[ul]
[li]A hyphen is used to make it clear that two words are linked together. If that is made clear otherwise–say, if the word pair is enclosed in quotes–I eschew the hyphen: Aloysius assured us the bullfighter was “finger lickin” good.[/li][li]If the compound adjective is a phrase that is frequently used as such, and there’s no real chance of confusion, I leave out the hyphen: His grandmother had the thighs of a long distance runner.[/li][li]. . . and I can’t think of any more just now; it’s already tomorrow. I’ll repost if it comes back to me.[/li][/ul]
And, as mentioned above, an adverb NEVER requires a hyphen, whether it’s got an -ly ending or not. Personally, I don’t even use a hyphen with the adverb “well,” unless there’s actually a chance of confusing it with the noun. Many people, however, make an exception to the adverb rule with this word. I find this habit archaic and unnecessary, but I think it’s gonna be around for a while.
Hypens are also used this side of the Atlantic to help with words like co-operate, pre-empt and the like to indicate that the double letter is not a diphthong. You chaps over there write “cooperate” and “preempt” which look odd to us. Oh, and “coworker”, which has a bovine connotation. In the American book I am currently reading, the publishers have employed a diaresis in “coöperate”, which is even retained when the word is split at the end of a line, viz:
co-
öperate
Similar to the use noted by Polycarp above, the hyphen indicates where a word’s meaning is modified when used in a phrase. For example, the word “short” in “short-list” doesn’t (necessarily) mean “the opposite of long”: you could, if you wished, have a short-list of 45,000.
The general trend in American English (perhaps elsewhere as well) seems to be to use hyphens in new formulations and then gradually drop them, making simple words of compound words:
or an angelic-smiley proponent?
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