Some examples of properly used hyphens follow. Note how the hyphenated word acts as a single unit carrying a meaning that the words being joined would not have individually. When Hyphens Are Not Needed By convention, hyphens are not used after words ending in –ly, nor when the words are s...
Any time a sentence starts with a dependent clause or modifying phrase, it must be followed by a comma. Here are some examples: Although I want to go to Hawaii for Joe’s wedding, I have to work. In high school, Suzy was the class clown. Unable to focus because of the loud construc...
Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples—from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we...
En Dashes The slightly longer en dash is not found on your keyboard. This may explain why people don’t use it much (a lot of people use a hyphen in place of en and em dashes). One of the main uses of en dashes is to separate numbers or date ranges. Here are some examples: She...
Examples You are the friend—the only friend—who offered to help me. (The em dash replaces commas.) I pay the bills—they have the fun. (The em dash replaces a semicolon.) Throughout the game, he was able to rely on his three core pitches—fastball, slider, change-up. (The em...
some examples includeself-care,great-grandfatherandcheck-in(the noun). Look at a dictionary to learn which words need a hyphen and which don’t, and be aware of evolving language.Emailused to be written with a hyphen but rarely is now; most dictionaries listwell-beingwith a hyphen, but ...