Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Hyphen or no hyphen?
English answer:
It depends!
Added to glossary by
Barbara Østergaard
Jun 29, 2012 10:57
12 yrs ago
6 viewers *
English term
Denmark
Language tailored to your target group
Native in: Danish 
Works in: English to Danish, Swedish to Danish, Norwegian to Danish, and 1 more.
Hyphen or no hyphen?
English
Other
Other
Do you prefer to write co-ordination and co-ordinate or coordination and coordinate? Reenter or re-enter.? Co-operation and co-operate or cooperation and cooperate? Etc. etc.
Is this simply a question of personal preferences, is one more common than the other, or is it just another difference betweem American and British usage?
Thanks in advance and have a great weekend.
Is this simply a question of personal preferences, is one more common than the other, or is it just another difference betweem American and British usage?
Thanks in advance and have a great weekend.
Responses
| 5 +11 | It depends! |
Oliver Lawrence
|
| 5 | omit the hyphen |
Charlesp
|
Change log
Jun 29, 2012 11:39: Barbara Østergaard changed "Language pair" from "Norwegian (Bokmal) to English" to "English" , "Field" from "Bus/Financial" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Business/Commerce (general)" to "Other"
Responses
+11
1 hr
Oliver Lawrence
Italy
Italy
Native in English
&
English
Works in field
Italy
Texts with zest by a Chartered Linguist
Native in: English (Variants: British, UK)
Works in: Italian to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
24
Selected
It depends!
This is a complex and ever-shifting subject. Best to pick a heavyweight dictionary and look it up every time, to be on the safe side. Or if you have a style guide, then go with that.
It's not generally a matter of correctness, although there are some guidelines, e.g.:
- you'd normally hyphenate two words when used as an adjective before a noun but not when used after;
- also you'd tend to hyphenate when not to do so would cause confusion (e.g. "reformed" means "having relinquished a dissolute lifestyle", but "re-formed" means "put back together again");
- there are also variations between regions (broadly speaking, US English prefers joined up to hyphenated words, whereas UK English leans the other way) and between genres (newspapers need to save space, so they often prefer joined-up to hyphenated forms).
There are plenty of good resources on the net about this (see two below)
It's not generally a matter of correctness, although there are some guidelines, e.g.:
- you'd normally hyphenate two words when used as an adjective before a noun but not when used after;
- also you'd tend to hyphenate when not to do so would cause confusion (e.g. "reformed" means "having relinquished a dissolute lifestyle", but "re-formed" means "put back together again");
- there are also variations between regions (broadly speaking, US English prefers joined up to hyphenated words, whereas UK English leans the other way) and between genres (newspapers need to save space, so they often prefer joined-up to hyphenated forms).
There are plenty of good resources on the net about this (see two below)
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Colin Rowe
: Comprehensive answer.
2 mins
|
| agree |
Jenni Lukac (X)
9 mins
|
| agree |
B D Finch
: Though it should be re-enter and not "reenter" to avoid the "ee", that could change as it used to be why cooperate was written co-operate..
18 mins
|
| agree |
Melanie Nassar
19 mins
|
| agree |
Lirka
: nice answer
42 mins
|
| agree |
Charles Davis
: B D is right, but even this is shifting, I think. In older texts you even see "coöperate", with a diaeresis. Good answer!
1 hr
|
| agree |
liz askew
: nicely put!
2 hrs
|
| agree |
David Moore (X)
: A personal view: I always hyphenate "co-operation" and "co-ordination" because of the "cooper" words and theiri derivatives, except when I'm translating into US English
3 hrs
|
| agree |
Sheila Wilson
: Personally, I tend to put them in, then take them all out again at the proofreading stage as it seems more "modern" without.
5 hrs
|
| agree |
Anita Šumer
8 hrs
|
| agree |
Phong Le
1 day 2 hrs
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
3 days 1 hr
omit the hyphen
When in doubt, omit the hyphen.
There are times when a hyphen needs to be used, however in the examples given it does not. Better to omit a hyphen than to use it, as a general rule (though of course in the UK hyphens are used more often than in US English - so you may want to take style into consideration).
Also note that the use of hyphens (where not essential) is falling into disuse - that is the trend.
There are times when a hyphen needs to be used, however in the examples given it does not. Better to omit a hyphen than to use it, as a general rule (though of course in the UK hyphens are used more often than in US English - so you may want to take style into consideration).
Also note that the use of hyphens (where not essential) is falling into disuse - that is the trend.
Discussion
No authoritative references cited, just my personal experience.