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The following compound modifiers are always hyphenated when they are not written as one word: An adjective preceding a noun to which -d or -ed has been added as a past-participle construction, used before a noun: "loud-mouthed hooligan" "middle-aged lady" "rose-tinted glasses" A noun, adjective, or adverb preceding a present participle:
can back up [verb]) (can be) (can black out [verb]) (can breathe [verb]) (can check out [verb]) (can play back [verb]) (can set up [verb]) (can try out [verb])
The hyphen ‐ is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. [1]The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash –, em dash — and others), which are wider, or with the minus sign −, which is also wider and usually drawn a little higher to match the crossbar in the plus sign +.
Compounding occurs when two or more words or signs are joined to make a longer word or sign. Consequently, a compound is a unit composed of more than one stem, forming words or signs. If the joining of the words or signs is orthographically represented with a hyphen, the result is a hyphenated compound (e.g., must-have, hunter-gatherer).
Words that function as compound adjectives may modify a noun or a noun phrase.Take the English examples heavy metal detector and heavy-metal detector.The former example contains only the bare adjective heavy to describe a device that is properly written as metal detector; the latter example contains the phrase heavy-metal, which is a compound noun that is ordinarily rendered as heavy metal ...
In many languages, words are often concatenated into new combinations of words. In German, compound nouns are frequently coined from other existing nouns. Some scripts do not clearly separate one word from another, requiring word-splitting algorithms. Each of these presents unique challenges to non-English language spell checkers.
In the tables, the hyphen has two different meanings. A hyphen after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., j - in jumper and ajar. A hyphen before the letter indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, e.g., - ck in sick and ticket.
A hyphenation algorithm is a set of rules, especially one codified for implementation in a computer program, that decides at which points a word can be broken over two lines with a hyphen. For example, a hyphenation algorithm might decide that impeachment can be broken as impeach-ment or im-peachment but not impe-achment .