Hyphen

This is used to join the parts of a compound word.


Examples:

Wrong	Twenty four of them will hold the glass.
Right	Twenty-four of them will hold the glass.
Wrong	Her cat like sound makes me feel uneasy.
Right	Her cat-like sound makes me feel uneasy.
Wrong	Seeing him face to face gives us unexplainable joy.
Right	Seeing him face-to-face gives us unexplainable joy.
Wrong	Half satisfied passion to hear her voice.
Right	Half-satisfied passion to hear her voice.
Wrong	Commander in chief.
Right	Commander-in-chier.
Wrong	Let us keep our schedule up to date.
Right	Let us keep our schedule up-to-date.

Hyphen is generally used with prefix 'self', 'post', 'ex', 'anti' and 'all'.

Wrong	self centered      self concious     self evident
Right	self-centered     self-concious     self-evident
Wrong	all clear
Right	all-clear
Wrong	anti aircraft
Right	anti-aircraft

Certain words like attorney general, tonight, tomorrow, weakened, ill temper which were once hyphenated no longer require a hyphen.

Some hyphenated words drop the hyphen when they become predicate modifiers; well-known, good-natured, ill-bred.

Wrong	The actor was not always well-known.
Right	The actor was not always well known.