hyphen

A hyphen is used:

• in compound modifiers (two or more words that express a single concept) preceding a noun.
• in compound adjectives.
• to avoid duplicated vowels or tripled consonants, such as anti-intellectual.
• when large numbers are spelled out, such as twenty-two or one hundred and fifty-three;
• in suspensive hyphenation; for example: It’s a 10- to 15-month plan.
• to join words to avoid ambiguity; for example: The president will speak with small-business owners. While small and business would not normally be hyphenated, small and business are hyphenated in this instance so that we know small is modifying business and not modifying owners.
• in the instances of most prefixes when the prefix ends in the same vowel with which the adjoining word begins.
• to join doubled prefixes: sub-subparagraph.
• to join a prefix to a capitalized word.

It is important to remember that screen readers do not necessarily read hyphens, or dashes. When a screen reader encounters some of the above sample hyphens, it simply reads the surrounding words or parts of words. For example:

• It’s a 10- to 15-month plan. is simply read as It’s a 10 to 15 month plan.
• The president will speak with small-business owners. is read as The president will speak with smallbusiness owners. Notice small and business are read by screen readers as one word.
• sub-subparagraph is read as subsubparagraph, as if the hyphen does not exist.

However, it is still important to follow hyphenation rules.

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