英语语法：63 Hyphens

Grammar Girl here.
 
Today's topic is hyphens.
 
On Monday afternoon Pat was watching the cable channel CNBC and called me over to the TV because the hosts were talking about hyphens. Yup, in the middle of a segment on the economy, they started talking about hyphens because the ticker read something like Is the glass half full or half empty? The original ticker had half full and half empty without hyphens, and then the next minute the words showed up with hyphens.
 
You could see evidence of a hyphen debate taking place right on the screen. Clearly one person who had control of the ticker favored hyphens and another person who also had control of the ticker did not.
The hosts noticed and started talking about it themselves. Fun stuff!
 
It turns out the first person was on the right track. In the sentence Is the glass half full? you don't need a hyphen between half and full. However, if we put the words half full before the word glass so that they are acting¹ as a compound modifier, then it makes sense to use a hyphen. The sentence would read He was holding a half-full glass.
 
Now, the detail-oriented people among you will notice that I didn't say anyone was right or wrong, and I didn't use strong words such as should hyphenate or must hyphenate. I chose my words carefully because the rules about hyphens can hardly be called rules; there are so many exceptions it's making me crazy.
 
The safest thing to do when you're unsure about hyphenating is to look the words up in a dictionary. For example, the Oxford² English Dictionary generally recommends hyphenating half-full when it comes before a noun and not hyphenating it otherwise, but the dictionary also shows exceptions. It's also common for published and in-house style guides to have a list of compound words that should be hyphenated. For example, The Chicago Manual of Style has a long guide to hyphenation and states that most compounds that begin with the word half are hyphenated when they come before nouns. So, my advice is to check a dictionary or style guide, but if you don't have one handy, follow the rule that you hyphenate compound modifiers when they come before a noun, and don't hyphenate them when they come after a noun.
 
Here's another example:
·       They were in a long-term relationship. (In that sentence, I hyphenated long-term because it comes before the noun relationship. Long-term is a compound adjective that modifies the word relationship.)
·       Their relationship was long term. (No hyphen. I didn't hyphenate long term because it comes after the noun.)
Sometimes it is especially important to hyphenate the compound modifier because words can mean different things depending on the hyphenation. When you hyphenate the words, you are applying them as a single unit to the noun.
 
For example, there's a difference between a hot-water bottle with a hyphen and a hot water bottle without a hyphen. When you hyphenate hot-water, you're making it a single compound modifier that applies to the word bottle. It's a bottle for holding hot water. But when you don't hyphenate hot water, the words are separate modifiers and you're describing a water bottle that is currently hot.
·       A hot-water bottle is a bottle for holding hot water.
·       A hot water bottle is a water bottle that is hot.
Always consider whether hyphenation will affect your meaning.
 
Meaning also matters when you are trying to decide whether to use a hyphen within a word. For example, if you didn't press your jeans properly and you need to re-press them, you would write that with a hyphen: I need to re-press my jeans. Otherwise, people might think you mean the verb repress meaning "to stifle³ or put down." You re-press jeans, but repress bad memories.
 
·       You need to re-press your jeans.
·       You need to repress those bad memories.
A dictionary is also helpful for figuring out less obvious cases of in-word hyphenation. Fortunately, there are at least a few solid rules. You use a hyphen when when you're joining a prefix⁴ to a word that must be capitalized and when joining a letter to a word. For example, you use a hyphen in
·       Anti-American
·       Un-American
·       Pre-Mesozoic
·       X-ray
·       A-list
·       T-shirt
Also, you use hyphens to write out numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. For example
·       Thirty-five
·       Sixty-four
·       Ninety-three
Hyphens are a complicated topic and I promise I'll do another show about other hyphen questions in the future.
 
We finally have book winners again this week! I'm giving away three copies of a book called How to Say It: Business Writing That Works by Adina Gewirtz. I really enjoyed Adina's writing style, and the book walks you through a helpful outlining system to make your business writing better. The winners are Mia, Dave C., and Bob M. who were entered in the drawing because they are subscribed⁶ to the free e-mail newsletter. You can subscribe⁵ through the blue button in the left-hand sidebar at QuickAndDirtyTips.com, and I'll put a link to Adina's book, Business Writing That Works, in the transcript⁷ for this show.
 
 
That's all. Thanks for listening.
 

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

2 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

3 stifle   

vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止

参考例句：

• She tried hard to stifle her laughter.她强忍住笑。
• It was an uninteresting conversation and I had to stifle a yawn.那是一次枯燥无味的交谈，我不得不强忍住自己的呵欠。

4 prefix   

n.前缀；vt.加…作为前缀；置于前面

参考例句：

• We prefix "Mr."to a man's name.我们在男士的姓名前加“先生”。
• In the word "unimportant ","un-" is a prefix.在单词“unimportant”中“un”是前缀。

5 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

6 subscribed   

v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意

参考例句：

• It is not a theory that is commonly subscribed to. 一般人并不赞成这个理论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I subscribed my name to the document. 我在文件上签了字。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。