use of hyphen '-'

[dhoomketu]

Hi all,

I was reading a book yesterday and there was a lot of use of hyphens. When are hyphens used? Just as a background the hyphens in this case were not used for splitting a word or completing a word. It was used as punctuations.

thanks

[RonPurewal]

here are two resources that you can consult:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/ ... yphen.html
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/copyXediting/Hyphens.html

in general, for questions as general and wide-ranging as this one, the collective wisdom of the internet will be able to give much more complete answers than we can.

if there are specific contexts in which you don't understand the use of the hyphen, though, feel free to post them here.

have fun!

[farooq.mazhar]

Hi all,

I was reading a book yesterday and there was a lot of use of hyphens. When are hyphens used? Just as a background the hyphens in this case were not used for splitting a word or completing a word. It was used as punctuations.

thanks

From SC point of view...I should say...hyphen is used to insert a list.

ex: Names of persons. Refer below example.

Each of the fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were hard workers, very different from the soldiers that remained to guard the hospital.

A. Each of the fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were hard workers
B. Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - each of them fallen soldiers - were hard workers
C. The fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were all hard workers
D. Hard workers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - each a fallen soldier
E. Hard workers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - every one a fallen soldier

C is the correct answer.

Another example.

(second example removed by Jamie Nelson because it is an OG question).

[RonPurewal]

[quote="farooq.mazhar"][/quote]

ah, yes, that.

that's actually not a "hyphen" at all; that's actually a dash. (a hyphen is about half the length of a dash, and is generally used in the middle of a single word, or to connect two words which then form a single compound word, such as man-eating in "man-eating tiger").

there are three main reasons for the use of dashes.

--

1) dashes can be used in the place of commas, to express some degree of surprise or irony at the content of the modifier that is being set off.


examples:
john, who is from las vegas, complained that winters in san francisco were cold.
there is no degree of surprise or iron into this modifier, so it is set off with commas as usual.

john -- who is from alaska -- complained that winters in san francisco were cold.
this modifier has a great deal of irony/surprise (for readers from other countries, alaska is much, much colder than san francisco). therefore, the modifier is set off with dashes, because its content is ironic or unexpected.

this is not the use of the dashes in the above examples.

--

(2) dashes may also be used as a substitute for commas to set off a modifier that NAMES people or things, especially if there is a LIST of such people/things.

example:
three of the players -- john, joe, and sammy -- and their wives were absent from the team banquet.
--> in this sentence, it's actually imperative that we use the dashes, since the sentence would be ambiguous if you just used commas:
three of the players, john, joe, and sammy, and their wives were absent from the team banquet.
there are two possible meanings for this version: (a) three unnamed players, john, joe, sammy, and all six of their wives; or (b) the above intended meaning.

this is more along the lines of what they are doing in the problems cited above. unlikely example that i have just given, those sentences are not ambiguous without the dashes, but the dashes help them become much more readable.

--

3) dashes can be used to replace colons.

as far as i know, a dash can be used in essentially any context in which one would normally use a colon.

i believe that this would normally be done when there is an element of irony or surprise, or perhaps emphasis (much as in example #1 above).

[vscidd]

Hi all,

I was reading a book yesterday and there was a lot of use of hyphens. When are hyphens used? Just as a background the hyphens in this case were not used for splitting a word or completing a word. It was used as punctuations.

thanks

From SC point of view...I should say...hyphen is used to insert a list.

ex: Names of persons. Refer below example.

Each of the fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were hard workers, very different from the soldiers that remained to guard the hospital.

A. Each of the fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were hard workers
B. Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - each of them fallen soldiers - were hard workers
C. The fallen soldiers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - were all hard workers
D. Hard workers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - each a fallen soldier
E. Hard workers - Henry Johnson, Paul Rider, Brent Hall and Bob McCay - every one a fallen soldier

C is the correct answer.

Another example.

Each of Hemingway's wives--Hadley Richardson. Pauline Pfeiffer. Martha Gelhom. and Mary Welsh --were strong and interesting women, very different from the often pallid women who populate his novels.

(A) Each of Hemingway's wives--Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhom, and Mary Welsh--were strong and interesting women,
(B) Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhorn, and Mary Welsh--each of them Hemingway's wives--were strong and, interesting women,
(C) Hemingway's wives--Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhom, and Mary Welsh--were all strong and interesting women,
(D) Strong and interesting women"”Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhom, and Mary Welsh--each a wife of Hemingway, was
(E) Strong and interesting women"”Hadley Richardson, Pauline Pfeiffer, Martha Gelhom, and Mary Welsh--every one of Hemingway's wives were

C is the correct answer.

Farooq,
What is the source of these questions?

[jnelson0612]

Farooq, please post the source of your first question. I had to delete the second question because it is from the OG, which is a banned source.

[dubinskysoares]

Hey i just read the posts. They were very helpful...
I just have one little doubt....

Is this a correct sentence:-
Each of LMNO's friend - ABC, XYZ,EFG-- is practicing law.

[tim]

there are a lot of things wrong with this sentence, some of which are interdependent. in other words, there's not much i can do to analyze the sentence until you clean it up a little more..

[Tadashi]

Hi Ron,

I googled "the use of dash in gmat " and found your post.
------------------
3) dashes can be used to replace colons.

as far as i know, a dash can be used in essentially any context in which one would normally use a colon.
------------------
Sorry, do you mean that like colon, dash can + a complete sentence?

would you like to give an example?
Thanks,
Tadashi.

[RonPurewal]

Sure.
The substitution shouldn't be random; the writer should have a reason (usually irony and/or emphasis).

E.g.,
To be a truly great musician, you need passion"”you can't become a legend just by mastering technical skills.

[Tadashi]

Thanks for your time and consideration!
Tadashi

[RonPurewal]

You're welcome.