Hyphens and compound words

2.46

General. Compounds may be written as two or more separate words, or with hyphen(s), or as a single word: and many compounds have followed precisely those steps (data base, data-base, database).

Use hyphens sparingly but to good purpose: the phrase crude oil production statistics needs a hyphen to tell the reader whether 'crude' applies to the oil or to the statistics.

Sometimes hyphens are absolutely necessary to clarify the sense:

re-cover — recover; re-creation — recreation; re-form — reform; re-count — recount

2.47

There are few hard and fast rules, but note the following examples:

well-known problem; hot-rolled strip; broad-based programme (but a broadly based programme);

oil-bearing rock; user-friendly software;

two-day meeting; four-month stay (but four months' holiday)

balance-of-payments policy; cost-of-living index;

crude-oil production; low-interest loans;

flood-control measures; melting-point temperature.

2.48

In adverb-adjective modifiers, no hyphen is needed when the adverb ends in -ly:

occupationally exposed worker, a beautifully phrased sentence

2.49

Many compounds lose their hyphens when not used attributively:

policy for the long term, production on a large scale (but he works full-time)

2.50

Chemical terms. Note that open compounds designating chemical substances do not take a hyphen in attributive position: boric acid solution, sodium chloride powder.

2.51

Prefixes are usually hyphenated in recent or ad hoc coinages:

anti-smoking campaign, co-responsibility levies, co-sponsor, ex-army, non-resident, non-flammable, pre-school, quasi-autonomous

If they are of Latin or Greek origin, however, they tend to drop the hyphen as they become established:

antibody, codetermination, codecision, cofinancing, cooperation, subcommittee, subparagraph

Others are more resistant to losing the hyphen:

end-user, end-phase, end-product, all-embracing, all-metal, off-market operations, off-duty

but note

endgame, nonsense, overalls

2.52

Nouns from phrasal verbs. These are often hyphenated, but the situation is fluid and US usage (no hyphen) is increasingly adopted in British English too. Thus handout, takeover, comeback but follow-up, run-up, spin-off.

2.53

Present participles of phrasal verbs. When used as attributes they are generally hyphenated:

cooling-off period;

2.54

Avoiding double consonants and vowels. Hyphens are often used to avoid juxtaposing two consonants or two vowels:

aero-elastic, anti-intellectual, part-time, re-election, re-entry, re-examine

The hyphen is often omitted in frequently used words:

bookkeeping, coeducation, cooperation, coordinate, macroeconomic, microeconomic, radioactive.

2.55

Numbers and fractions. Numbers take hyphens when they are spelled out. Fractions take hyphens when used attributively, but not when used as nouns:

twenty-eight, two-thirds completed

But: an increase of two thirds.

2.56

Prefixes before proper names. Prefixes before proper names are hyphenated: pro-American, intra-Community, mid-Atlantic, pan-European, trans-European (NB: Trans-European Networks). Note, however, that transatlantic is written solid.

2.57

Coordination of compounds. Hyphenated compounds may be coordinated as follows:

gamma- and beta-emitters, acid- and heat-resistant, hot- and cold-rolled products

Where compounds are not hyphenated (close compounds), or should you choose to write them so, they should not be coordinated but written out in full:

macrostructural and microstructural changes, minicomputers and microcomputers, prenatal and postnatal effects, agricultural inputs and outputs

NOT

macro- and microstructural changes, mini- and microcomputers, pre- and postnatal effects, agricultural in- and outputs

(BUT of course

macro- and micro-structural changes, pre- and post-natal effects)

2.58

Close compounds in technical texts. There are two major categories. Firstly, those that consist of pairs of short native English words: sugarbeet, pigmeat, sheepmeat, feedingstuffs, groundwater, yellowcake, wetfish, shortgrasses; secondly, there is the highly productive category of compounds derived from Greek or Latin stems: keratoderma, keratomalacia, keratolytic, phyllophaga, phyllopod.

2.59

VAT. If you need to write this out in full in Commission documents, write value added tax.

3.

PUNCTUATION

3.1

As a general principle, the punctuation in an English translation must follow English rules, not those of the original (as the rules and conventions vary from one language to another). Remember that:

• punctuation marks in English are always — apart from dashes (see 3.19) — closed up to the preceding word;  

• stops (. ? ! : ;) are always followed by only a single (not a double) space;  

• spaces must not be used to align text (use tab stops, indents or tables instead);  

• quotation marks may be either straight ("...") or preferably smart (“...”) but never chevrons (‹‹...››) or as in German („...“).