The English language is a tricky thing. There are lots of rules that must be followed to make sentences sound correct. One rule that often confuses writers is when to use a hyphen in compound modifiers. This blog post will help you understand when it’s appropriate to use this punctuation mark, and how the decision can change depending on what you’re trying to say. In the following sentence, “a writer should hyphenate” indicates that there are two words being modified by one another: “writer” and “hyphenate.” When these two words come together, they need to be connected by an “-en-” or “-ed-.” The same goes for adjectives describing people: “his powerful speech,” not “his power speech.” The following sentence, “a writer should hyphenate” indicates that there are two words being modified by one another: “writer” and “hyphenate.” When these two words come together, they need to be connected by an “-en-” or “-ed-.” The same goes for adjectives describing people: “his powerful speech,” not “his power speech.” This means that when the modifier is a noun which precedes the word it modifies (e.g., “new York attorney”) or a clause in parentheses which follows the word it modifies (e.g., “(even though)”), you do not use a hyphen (-). However, if said adjective
