EICCD - grammar

When we were very you-
        ng, we saw many black
        birds in trees at Yellow
        stone Park.

I went to that unAmerican expolitician Smith to have my couch recovered, and he charged me a fortune.
If you're unsure of how to use the hyphen, don't take the examples above seriously. They show how hyphens are misused.

The most common use for the hyphen is to break a word at the end of a line:

black-bird (not a black bird, but a blackbird).
Yellow-stone (Yellowstone Park, not Yellow stone Park).

Note that "young" is incorrectly hyphenated also. We don't break single syllable words, so "young" should be completed on the first line, or written entirety on the second line.

When you come to the end of a line in writing, and have to consider breaking a word, there is one ironclad rule to follow: consult your dictionary! Each word entered in the dictionary shows syllabication break marks (the dots between syllables - syl*la*bles). You may break a word at any syllabication mark, but nowhere else.

The second most common use of the hyphen is to create compound words.
Some compounds are written solid (steamship, blackboard, applesauce), some are nearly always written as separate words (dirt cheap, place kick, wedding ring), and some are hyphenated (father-in-law, up-to-date, ready-made).

We will give some examples to help clarity when to use hyphens for compound words, but the rule from number one still applies - consult your dictionary if you are in doubt.

Some places where hyphens are used regularly are:

in compounds consisting of a prefix and a proper noun (sentence number 2, un-American). Other examples: anti-Russian, pro-African.

in compounds consisting of "ex" (former) and a noun (sentence number 2, ex-politician). Other examples: ex-wife, ex-friend, ex-President Clinton.

in words where confusion will result without the hyphen (sentence number 2, re-covered the chair [reupholstered it, not got it back from somewhere or someone]). Other examples: re-creation (to create again, not "recreation," to play and to relax); re-sign (to sign again, not "resign," to quit).

in compound numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine and fractions,
sixty-five    two-thirds    thirty-two    three-fourths

And remember, a hyphen is one line, not two. Two typewritten lines comprise a dash, which has an entirely different purpose.

After reviewing these rules about the hyphen, correct the following sentences by removing incorrectly used hyphens, and adding new ones where needed.

Is it necessary to hyphenate works like exNasa, proGerman, and thirty-two?

Melody, his ex-sweetheart, decided he was too antiintellectual for her.

I have asked him thir-teen times to remark on his success in re-covering the stolen diamonds.

Hyphen

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