What is a hyphen?
A hyphen is a short dash which is used to link words together. It acts like a glue.
When do we use hyphens?
1- Hyphens are used in compound words. They make the meaning of the words clearer and show us that we need to read both words together to find their combined meaning.
For example:
good-looking
brightly-lit
accident-prone
2- Hyphens are used to denote word breaks and avoid confusion.
de-ice (rather than deice).
semi-illiterate (rather than semiilliterate).
3- Hyphens are used when adding a prefix to another word.
Re-enter (re- ends with 'e' and enter begins with 'e')
Co-operate (co- ends with 'o' and operate begins with 'o')
4- Hyphens are also used for numbers:
twenty-one
fifty-nine
For this set of activities, you will be asked to choose where the hyphen should be placed in a given word.
Here is an example:
Where should the hyphen be placed in the word reexamine?
ree-xamine / reex-amine/ re-examine
The answer is re-examine.
