Hyphens are usually used to join compound words – like zero-tolerance, or make-or-break. But some compound words go without hyphens – either by remaining as two words, like ‘hit man’ and ‘lamp post’, or by becoming a single word, like ‘stakeholder’ and ‘groundsheet’. There are a few rules about when a compound word should be hyphenated and when it shouldn’t, but there are so many variations that it’s best to know what applies in each instance – or to look it up.
First, the hyphen itself: in an earlier post I talked about three kinds of hyphens – an en dash, an em dash, and an actual hyphen. For this article I will just be referring to hyphens.
You might think it a relief to know that there isn’t always a rule – that sometimes it’s up to you, the writer, to decide what works best. But this doesn’t necessarily make life easier – for two reasons. First, because you need to know when it’s OK to relax the rules – there are rules about when you can relax the rules! Second, because if you are writing a long document, you need to remember how you dealt with a particular compound word first time round, and stick to that. I recently proofread a book which referred to ‘car-wash’, ‘carwash’ and ‘car wash’. None of these is ‘wrong’, but it is certainly wrong to use all three.
‘Proofreader’, ironically, is an example of being allowed to choose. I used to use ‘proof-reader’ all the time; then I joined the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (now CIEP), which prefers the single word, and I started to follow their preference. But I still see ‘proof-reader’ just as often, not least in Microsoft Word’s dictionary – and in documents I wrote myself!
You might hope for some sort of help from the words themselves – do certain words follow a consistent pattern? No – you write ‘saddle-sore’ but ’saddlebag’; ‘timeline’ but ‘time frame’; ‘bomb site’ but ‘bombshell’.
Most of the rules relate to the kind of words making up the compound word, and the role of the compound word itself. Even that doesn’t help in every case, but it goes a long way.
For example, when the compound word acts as an adjective it is called a modifier. Modifiers usually take a hyphen when used before the word(s) they modify – a thought-provoking book – but not when they come afterwards – your book was thought provoking.
Even this specific-sounding rule splits further: when the compound before the noun includes an adjective, such as ‘high-pitched’ or ‘free-standing’, it usually takes a hyphen. Whereas when it consists of two nouns, no hyphen is used – ‘ozone layer depletion’, or ‘advice centre volunteer’.
There are several other rules, mostly depending on the job the compound does in the sentence. But sometimes there seems to be no way of knowing: why ‘life cycle’ but ‘motorcycle’? That’s why even an experienced proofreader needs reference books to hand. New Hart’s Rules and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors are two of the most useful tools I know to find the way through the maze – the first for the rules and the second for plentiful examples, including most of the ones I have used above.
Accuracy Works 