From the course: Writing with Proper Punctuation
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When to use hyphens with prefixes
From the course: Writing with Proper Punctuation
When to use hyphens with prefixes
- In general, style guides seem to be moving away from putting hyphens after prefixes, but there's still a few instances when you should use one. For example, you should always use a hyphen when it might not be clear what word you mean, which can happen with the prefix R-E often enough that it does come up. For example, there's a difference between recovering from an illness and re-covering a sofa. There's a difference between outdoor recreation and a dramatic re-creation. Some style guides also specifically advise using a hyphen between double letters, such as in de-emphasize, semi-interesting, and anti-intellectual. Also, if the second part of a word needs to be capitalized, you often use a hyphen, as in pro-Canadian and mid-Atlantic. I can't stress enough that even these are just general rules and the rules in style guides are highly variable and do change. So this is a case where if you're required to follow a…
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