Hyphens, En Dashes, Em Dashes
Q. Consider the following sentence: “I am bored by exhibitions of folk-, line-, and square dancing.” Are the hyphens correct even though the compounds contain no hyphens? Similarly, “He was a poor student in both middle- and high school.” I believe the hyphen is needed here, but will defer to your opinion. Answer »
Q. I’m interested in how you would treat the following issue of double punctuation: U.S.-oriented. I decided to omit the hyphen, which I would have otherwise used, because I didn’t like the way it looked following an abbreviation period. Answer »
Q. Should a range of specific dates be written using an unspaced en dash, even in headings? Which is correct: 14 March 1879–8 April 1955 or 14 March 1879—8 April 1955? Answer »
Q. How do you treat an age term with a range of large numbers in decimal form: “3.5-million-year-old fossil,” right? And if it’s a fossil between 3.2 and 3.5 million years old, but the author insists on a sentence structure like the first example, isn’t “3.2- to 3.5-million-year-old fossil” best? Or “3.2-to-3.5-million-year-old fossil”? Or—surely not!—“3.2–3.5–million-year-old fossil” or connecting the whole thing with en dashes (through “old”)? Thank you. Answer »
Q. A question arose in my proofreading class about the phrase “rock and roll.” Merriam-Webster’s suggests that when it is used as a noun, no hyphens are required, and when used as an adjective, hyphens are preferred. Our question was whether we should choose one or the other and stick with it through the entire document or alternate between hyphenating and not hyphenating depending upon usage. Answer »
Q. Stylebooks insist on the use of a second comma in place-names that include city and state (he came from Smith’s Falls, Virginia, to drive the car), but it seems to me that the internal comma serves to separate the town name from the state name, and not to set off a nonrestrictive phrase, so it need not be followed by the second comma. Does this make sense? Answer »
Q. If “e-mail” is spelled with the hyphen, should “voicemail” also be hyphenated? I’ve seen it as voice mail, voice-mail and voicemail. Which is correct? If it is not hyphenated, why is it treated differently from e-mail? Answer »
Q. I’m editing a report about the EPA’s “Climate Ready Estuaries” program. Unfortunately, the program’s formal name has no hyphen, but there are several instances of “climate ready” as a phrasal adjective throughout the paper. I obviously can’t insert a hyphen into the program name, and I’m naturally averse to leaving “climate ready” unhyphenated. But this creates at least the appearance of inconsistency. What’s a diligent hyphenator to do? Answer »
Q. What’s the proper hyphenation for “non gun owners”? Section 6.80 of the 16th edition tells me how to treat compound adjectives but gives no guidance on nouns. Section 7.85, no. 4, “non” with a noun + gerund (non-beer-drinking), is different from my problem of “non” with two nouns. Mine functions as a noun, Chicago’s as an adjective (a non-beer-drinking group). Answer »
Q. I have a question about physical quantities in a sentence. Does CMOS section 9.13 include weights such as grams and ounces? Example: Berry (1979) did more tests on the 2-gram tablets. Is there a hyphen or not? Answer »
Q. If you have to call someone “Jeff-bear,” is the hyphen appropriate, or would “Jeffbear” suffice? The new Manual doesn’t say. Answer »
Q. MS Word changes two hyphens to the solid-line em dash. What do editors and copyeditors prefer? Thanks. Answer »
Q. Hi, CMOS: I work in India, and we’ve been going back and forth over whether or not to hyphenate “ebook” for the US version of some marketing material. The British version does not hyphenate it, but Webster’s 11th does. Wired magazine, interestingly, has it both ways, and the CNET website hyphenates. Do you have a recommendation as to how to make an editorial decision when there is no fixed house style and when there’s really no clear consensus on how to proceed? Answer »
Q. There is one type of compound adjective that has been causing me grief, and I was hoping you might be able to clarify it for me: “high–molecular weight hydrocarbon” or “high-molecular-weight hydrocarbon” or “high molecular weight hydrocarbon”? The sentence, for context: Following flocculation using a high-molecular-weight, medium-charge density polyacrylamide flocculent at optimal dosage, the filterability of flocculated sediments from tailings containing an intermediate fines content of solids from 10 to 20 wt. % was improved drastically. Thank you kindly! Answer »
Q. I realize that the rules regarding hyphenation are fluid, but I was wondering if you could clarify an issue that has been bothering me. Is there a good way to know when to hyphenate two words serving as an adjective, especially when ambiguity could be an issue? For example, would the phrase “foreign language skills” be hyphenated? What about “large book sale”? Could this second phrase be interpreted as “a sale of large books” instead of “a large sale of books”? Answer »
Q. Dear CMOS: My author uses 9/11 as a shorthand to refer to the September 11 attacks. When this is being used in the phrase “post-9/11 world,” wouldn’t an en dash be more appropriate than a hyphen because post has to bridge 9/11, which is shorthand for two words? Answer »
Q. I am editing a collection of poems. My poet is inclined to use ellipses and em dashes extensively and incorrectly. I argued that this will detract from the manuscript and be distracting for readers. She argued that it’s a style thing and I shouldn’t change it. Who is right? Does the poet get complete license? Answer »
Q. I’ve been copyediting textbooks for more than a decade. I removed the title Dr. in a section about Martin Luther King Jr. because I thought that once a person is deceased, titles are not used in subsequent references. The editor strongly disagreed with this edit and stetted all the Dr.’s. For me, it was a matter of consistency; we don’t refer to Jonas and Albert as “Dr. Salk” and “Dr. Einstein.” (At least I don’t.) For the editor, it was an issue of respect for a man and his ideals. Is there a difference between dead scientific doctors and dead academic ones, or is Dr. King an exception to the rule? Answer »
Q. My question is regarding page numbers in references. If we have pages ranging from 315 to 317, it is my understanding this should read as 315–7. Now let’s say a journal article is from pages 310 to 319. Does it matter that there is a zero in the beginning page number? Is the proper format 310–9 or 310–19? Someone has informed me that if a zero occurs in the beginning page, we must skip a number back in the ending page. That would mean 310–19, rather than 310–9. Answer »
Q. If court testimony is being quoted and the speaker does not often use correct grammar (repeats words, speaks in sentence fragments or sentences that don’t logically follow, etc.), is it okay to change it extensively and use brackets to indicate the changes? Would a general disclaimer work? Answer »
Q. There has been an increase in the use of green to mean “ecofriendly.” Should we place green in quotation marks when used in this manner? Does it depend on the sentence? Answer »
Q. For Chicago style, is there a mandate on whether a paper clip or staple should be used? Answer »
Q. Hello, I've tried to grasp the rule on hyphenating a couple of words I'm confronted with; could you please confirm I'm right in my reasoning: nontoxic (“non-toxic” would look better); nonsmokers (“non-smokers” would look better); noneicosanoid functions (“non-eicosanoid” would look better; nonphosphorylated form (“non-phosphorylated” would look better). Answer »
Q. I’m seeing this particular use of hyphens: low-to-moderate income families. I don’t think it’s correct, but it’s becoming so common that I’m beginning to wonder if I missed something. Answer »
Q. I was not able to find this in CMOS anywhere: how do you hyphenate a word that has both a prefix and a suffix? For example, should “seminationwide” have any hyphens? Answer »
Previous Page | Next Page