Prompt Proofing Blog Post: To Hyphenate or Not to Hyphenate?

VANCOUVER, BC, February 04, 2011 (Press-News.org) I would have retired to Costa Rica in luxury years ago if I had a dollar every time a teacher got this one wrong on a student's report card.

Johnny is a well-behaved child. Correct.
Johnny is a well behaved child. Wrong.

Johnny is well behaved. Correct.
Johnny is well-behaved. Wrong.

As a general rule of thumb, hyphenating with the adverb well depends on its place in the sentence - does it come before or after the noun? If before, hyphenate, if after, don't!

Similarly:

It was a well-built house. He produced a well-written article.

BUT

The house was well built. His article was well written.

If you're not sure when to hyphenate two adjectives, try splitting them up and see if the sentence would still make sense. Look at these examples:

A long-eared dog, a short-haired cat, a cool-headed negotiator, a rough-cut diamond.

In all of these cases, the meaning would change if the adjectives were not hyphenated; a dog could be long, or have long ears, a cat could be short, or its hair could be short etc.

'Ex' and 'self' are always followed by a hyphen, for example:

I am still friendly with my ex-husband.

My boss oozes self-confidence.
Check back next Friday for another Prompt Proofing blog post!

About the Author

Pat Wootton is originally from England and is a former high school English teacher. Having spent many years in the Caribbean, where she raised her family, she now lives in Vancouver, BC. In addition, she has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for several years after earning a diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of British Columbia. She now owns and runs Prompt Proofing, a copy editing and writing service that caters to individuals and partners with marketing and public relations companies.

About Prompt Proofing

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