Correct Use of the Hyphen in English
The correct use of the hyphen is something that is not commonly understood, and it is very typical to see words with a hyphen when they should not have one and vice versa.
Some people claim that it doesn’t really matter and is simply not important, whereas for others it is a sign of either good or poor use of English or a good or poor understanding of written English. However, there are times when it is a very important part of English grammar.
If we look at the phrase, ‘Thirty odd men,’ this can be read two ways. It may mean thirty men who are odd. Or it could mean around a total of thirty men, but that an exact count was not made. If we use a hyphen here, then the meaning is clear. ‘Thirty-odd men’ means around thirty men (it does not mean that they were odd). Thus the use of a hyphen can be important in expressing correct meaning. A hyphen should also be used when joining a prefix to a proper name. So we would use a hyphen to join together, ‘anti-Pope,’ meaning someone who is opposed to the Pope. ‘Anti’ is the prefix and ‘Pope’ is the proper name. Since the use of hyphens is difficult to get to grips with, particularly when learning English as a second language, it can be useful to use some kind of online grammar checking package. This helps you see if you have used a hyphen appropriately, or indeed if you need to insert a hyphen to give your writing a clearer meaning.
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