Q. Does half need a hyphen when modifying a verb? For example, “He half listened to her story” or “She half walked, half ran.”
A. No hyphen—half may be treated like other adverbs. He barely listened; he half listened. She quickly walked; she half walked.
Q. In mathematics it is common to refer to an important construction or theorem due to several authors by joining their names together with hyphens. For example, one often refers to the Cartan-Eilenberg spectral sequence for the spectral sequence of Cartan and Eilenberg. There seems to be room for confusion when an author’s name is already hyphenated. For example, some authors refer to the conjecture of Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer as the Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, whereas others write the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. Is there a style which you recommend?
A. Since using two hyphens (or an en dash and a hyphen) would be confusing, use and instead.
Q. My colleagues in marketing add a full space before and after a hyphen rather than using a dash without spaces. I agree with CMOS on the proper uses of hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes, but haven’t seen any direction about the spaces before and after these characters. I tend to kern a little air between the beginning and end of a dash if the font jams them together, but it is nothing remotely close to a full space.
A. Please see CMOS 2.14: “For an em dash—one that indicates a break in a sentence like this—either use the em dash character on your word processor or type two hyphens (leave no space on either side).”
Q. Do you recommend using suspended compounds and hyphenation in the following cases? hard- and software; up- and downgrade.
A. Maybe on Twitter. Otherwise, the awkwardness outweighs the economy.
Q. Hello, my question concerns hyphenating the term “anti-Second Amendment.” Wherever I see it, it is hyphenated as in my first sentence, but if the purpose of the hyphen is to let the reader know which of the words are linked, then “anti Second-Amendment” would seem to make more sense. But my spelling checker flags this alternate hyphenation. Is this an instance where we would be justified breaking the rule?
A. First, capitalized proper nouns are rarely hyphenated. The job of a hyphen is to link two words. The capital letters in a proper noun do that job very well; a hyphen is usually overkill. Second, Chicago style does not use a hyphen to link a prefix (like anti-) to an open compound. We require an en dash (anti–Second Amendment), because a hyphen would link only anti and Second, leaving us with an amendment that is “anti-Second.”
Q. How does one, using a word processor, make an em dash/en dash distinguishable from a hyphen?
A. You might have noticed that when you type two hyphens with no spaces around them in MS Word, your computer turns them into an em dash if your automatic formatting settings are on. (If you type spaces around the hyphens, Word supplies an en dash.) You can type an em dash on purpose using the keystrokes Control+Alt+Minus (the Minus key is on the numeric keypad). To type an en dash, try Control+Minus. Or go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols, and click on the Special Characters tab to find both of these marks and others. For Mac applications and those other than Word, search online for “type [punctuation mark] in [your application].”
Q. A recent article in Science magazine included the following sentence: “Every 10 weeks, Sundquist gets 32 bee sting-like injections of the nerve-numbing botulism toxin into her face and neck.” Should that be “bee-sting-like”?
A. A look at the article online reveals that the punctuation between sting and like is not a hyphen but an en dash (bee sting–like), which indicates that the entire phrase bee sting goes with like. We show this use of the en dash at CMOS 6.80 in the example “Chuck Berry–style lyrics.” That kind of en dash (as we say) “is most helpful with proper compounds, whose limits are established within the larger context by capitalization.” The danger in using it for lowercased phrases is that many readers will read the dash as a hyphen—as you did. A good solution for phrases that aren’t proper nouns is to use two hyphens instead, as you suggest: bee-sting-like.
Q. Dear wise and knowledgeable CMOS person, a fellow writer and editor and I can’t agree. She insists that “well-trained dog” shouldn’t have a hyphen. I think it must have that hyphen. We were both pretty tired when this cropped up, so we ended up barking a bit at each other. We’d like to resolve this bone of contention by appealing to you, whom we both respect and trust. Whatever you say, we’ll abide by.
A. If the dog is well trained (no hyphen), it is a well-trained dog. Please have a long look at our hyphenation table at CMOS 7.89. (Just one reason we’re top dog.)
Q. It seems that all types of dashes are treated without spaces in Chicago. Is the use of a hyphen with spaces ever acceptable (word - word)?
A. Chicago style omits spaces around hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. There are exceptions where a single space is allowed after a hyphen or en dash:
left- and right-hand margins
nos. 1– (1980–)
Some kinds of writing (such as in some other languages, or in poetry) follow their own rules, but Chicago style never calls for spaces on both sides of a hyphen.
Q. I understand that adjectives modified by adverbs ending in -ly are always open. But what about instances such as “provide developmentally appropriate information”? My instinct is not to hyphenate, but I don’t think developmentally is an adverb here, so I’m not sure if the always-open rule applies.
A. Developmentally is indeed an adverb modifying the adjective appropriate. It’s exactly the kind of situation we’re referring to in CMOS 5.93. Chicago style is not to hyphenate.