Hyphens3 Somewordsoften writtenwitha hyphen can alsobe
written as two words:dining-roomordining room.
Others can be writteneither with a hyphen or as one
word:hard-heartedorhardhearted.
4 Hyphens become important when they makeyour
meaningclear: perhapsaviolentbutterflycollector
collects violent butterflies,whereaswhenviolent
butterfly-collectoris writtenwe know it is the collector
whois violent:
<Look £ 1toseetheman-eattugtiger!'
'G ire'me.sOp.Dad.atu!I'll slime'JOlt(Jboyeati llgice
crell11l..
(^5) In handw rittenEnglish,don'tuse a hyphen at theend
ofa line to split a wordthatis toolongto fit ontothat
line: writeit on the next.
Practice
Add hyphenswhere appropriatein this newspaper
report.
Porschedrivingarmychief
in
antinuclearprotest
LOCALANGERwas r evealed
yesterdaywhena cross sectionofthe
populationwasquestionedabout
plans fora newgascoolednuclear
react orjusttwentythreemilesnorth
westofthecity centre.The opinion
pollr evealedstrongantinuclear
feelings amon gthre efifths ofthe
population.Indeed,thecoexistenc e
of twopressuregroupsinthe valley
came to light: onea sma lltime affa ir
ledby a doglovingcatfood fa ctory
ownercohabitingwitha usedcar
sales woman in a twenty st oreyhi gh
ri s eblock,theot he ramore
t h reaten ing operationwithleft wing
Ma rxi s tLeninis t sym pa t h ies.This
lattergroup, coordinatedby
Lieutenant Colone lJamesFox
Talbot,the redhairedPorsche
driving managingdirectorofa n
ultramodernhighexplosive fa ctory,
i salready sus pecte dofh aving
committedanumberofactsof low
levelsabotage. Lad yFoxTal bot,the
LieutenantColone l'suniversity
educatedwife an d cocoord inator of
thegroup, h a sdescribedthes e
accusations asfarfetch ed.
'We ares im ply reminding the
democratically electe dgove rn me n t of
it s dem ocraticr esp on sibilities,' the
FoxTalbotssa id in a jointstatement
is su ed yesterday. 'Asparen tswith a
three yea r old son, we ar e deepl y
worriedaboutthegover n ment's
happygoluckya t ti t u det o radiation.
Weurge allourfellow va lley
dwellers to joinu s an dtake
advantage ofthis oncein alifetim e
opportunity toprevent the mist ak es
of twentiethcentury technology
being carriedoverintot he twenty
firstcen t u ry.'
Writingsub-sk ills• 37