What Are the Hyphen Rules?
1. Use a hyphen in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. Example: The final score was seventy-eight to sixty-two. 2. Use a hyphen between the numbers in a fraction. Example: I only used three-fourths of the flour you gave me. 3. Use a hyphen to form some compound words, especially compound adjectives that appear for the nouns they modify. Example: I just bought a dot-matrix printer. 4. Use a hyphen to join a capital letter to a word. Example: I had to have my arm X-rayed. 5. Use a hyphen to show a family relationship, except “grand” and “half.” Example: My sister-in-law helps take care of my great-aunt. Example: We are going to go visit my grandparents while we are in town. Example: Connie just found out that she has a half sister. 6. When the first word of the two-word modifier ends in ly, hyphenate if the ly word acts as one idea with the second word AND the ly word can be used alone with the noun, that is, the ly word is an adjective. Examples: friendly-looking man A hyph
