Heisenberg, your uncertainty over hyphens is principally over

[HornsRuleU]

This post is for anyone willing to improve a little, to become better understood.

Bwilk55 wrote this recently:

I think most of our replacements on defense are elite less experienced players replacing guys who were experienced but not elite players.​

Forgive me, Bwilk55, but who sees the mistakes?

We have a missing comma and a missing hyphen in the first sentence. Because of that, it's ambiguous.

1. Are the replacements elite-less, but experienced?
2. Or are they elite, but less-experienced?

The fact that Bwilk55 is a faithful Horn strongly suggests meaning #2. Even if you didn't know that, the previous players were experienced but not elite. So, Bwilk55 is saying that the replacements have the opposite attributes. It would be odd to say that the replacements are exactly the same as the old guys. Whenever in doubt, the context wins.

What is it:
This "-" punctuation is called a hyphen. It has zero to do with Fentanyl overdoses. It isn't another name for a dash, either.

A hyphen is a single line connecting words to show that they go together.

When to Use:
As we've seen, you need a hyphen whenever not using a hyphen leads to an ambiguity, such as when a word could be connected with the prior word, or the following one.

Whenever you have 2+ words that function as an adjective, and are used before the noun, you need a hyphen between them. That's called a compound adjective. Examples:

• Off-campus dorm
• State-of-the-art design
• well-ventilated brain
• no-good Sooner*

Some compound adjectives are always hyphenated, even when used after the noun, such as:

• His fake to the halfback and gliding moves past defenders were as well-timed as they were athletic and graceful. (Versus well-timed moves.)
• The children of the actresses were obviously well-connected. (Versus well-connected children.)

Usually, though, compound adjectives after the noun are not hyphenated.

• The dorm was off campus.
• This Sooner was no good.*

There are other situations to use hyphens, but this is a good start.

*Many would view the adjective "no-good" in "no-good Sooner" as redundant. "Sooner" is sufficient to describe the majority of them.

Don't worry, I don't plan any more lessons. So this thread can drift to the bottom of the list and onto page 2 right about... now.

 

[LonghornMM]

Come on, man. This isn't a grammar school class.