When To Use The Hyphen
Hyphens (-) are the short lines that we put between words.
ex-husband
blue-green
Uses
- Two-word compound adjectives are hyphenated when the second word ends in -ed or -ing.
green-hued
blue-eyed
broken-hearted
Other two-word adjectives which contain the sense of ‘between’ are also often hyphenated.
Indo-Pak relations
Anglo-French connections
blue-green (between blue and green)
The New York-Paris flight.
Longer phrases used as adjectives before nouns are also often hyphenated.
an out-of-work singer
Two-word compound nouns are hyphenated when the first word is stressed.
running-shoes
bus-driver
paper-shop
The prefixes co-, non- and ex- are sometimes separated from what follows by hyphens
co-operation
non-alignment
ex-husband
Notes
Nowadays there is a growing tendency to avoid hyphens. Most common short compounds are now written as single words with no separation between them.
weekend
takeover
Less common or larger compounds are written as completely separate words.
living room
