The hyphen (-)

12. The hyphen (-)

 To avoid ambiguity: a re-formed band (compare: a reformed band)  When spelling out numbers: thirty-two  When linking nouns with nouns; adjectives with adjectives:

- the London-Brighton train

- American-French relations  When a noun phrase is used to qualify another noun:

a stainless-steel kitchen - the seven- o’clock train  Certain prefixes: un-American, anti-Apartheid, pro-war, quasi-funny

 When letters are spelled out: L-E-C-T-U-R-E  To avoid letter collision: de-ice (deice), shell-like (shelllike)  To indicate a word is not finished but continues on the next line: She indicated she was

nearly ready and that she wanted us to go on a- head

Exercises Punctuation

All punctuation marks and capital letters have been removed from the sentences below. It is your task to put them back.

1. the men in question harold keene jim peterson and gerald greene deserve awards

2. several countries participated in the airlift italy belgium france and luxembourg

3. only one course was open to us surrender said the ex-major and we did

4. judge carswell later to be nominated for the supreme court had ruled against civil rights

5. in last weeks new yorker one of my favourite magazines i enjoyed reading lelands article how not to go camping

6. yes jim said ill be home by ten

7. there was only one thing to do study till dawn

8. montaigne wrote the following a wise man never loses anything if he has himself

9. the following are the primary colours red blue and yellow

10. arriving on the 8 10 plane were liz brooks my old roommate her husband and tim their son

11. when the teacher commented that her spelling was poor lynn replied all the

members of my family are poor spellers why not me

12. he used the phrase you know so often that i finally said no i dont know

13. the automobile dealer handled three makes of cars volkswagen porsche and mercedes benz

14. though phil said he would arrive on the 919 flight he came instead on the 1036 flight

15. whoever thought said helen that jack would be elected class president

16. in baseball a show boat is a man who shows off

17. there was a very interesting article entitled the new rage for folk singing in last

sundays new york times newspaper

18. whoever is elected secretary of the club ashley or chandra or aisha must be prepared to do a great deal of work said jumita the previous secretary

19. darwins book on the origin of species 1859 caused a great controversy when it appeared

Exercise "Pasta": comma or semi-colon?

Throughout the following two paragraphs, you will find a number of empty paired brackets: [ ]. Replace each set of brackets with a comma or a semicolon, keeping in mind that the primary use of a semicolon is to separate two main clauses not joined by a coordinating conjunction When you are done, compare your work with the correctly punctuated versions of the two paragraphs on the last page of this reader.

Pasta[ ] a large family of shaped[ ] dried wheat pastes[ ] is a basic staple in many countries. Its origins are obscure. Rice pastes were known very early in China[ ] pastes made of wheat were used in India and Arabia long before they were introduced into Europe in the 11th or 12th century. According to legend[ ] Marco Polo brought a pasta recipe with him from Asia in 1295. Pasta quickly became a major element in the Italian diet[ ] and its use spread throughout Europe.

Pasta is made from durum wheat flour[ ] which makes a strong[ ] elastic dough. Hard durum wheat has the highest wheat protein value. The flour is mixed with water[ ] kneaded to form

a thick paste[ ] and then forced through perforated plates or dies that shape it into one of more than 100 different forms. The macaroni die is a hollow tube with a steel pin in its centre[ ] the spaghetti die lacks the steel pin and produces a solid cylinder of paste. Ribbon pasta is made by forcing the paste through thin slits in a die[ ] shells and other curved shapes are produced with more intricate dies. The shaped dough is dried carefully to reduce the moisture content to about 12 per cent[ ] and properly dried pasta should remain edible almost indefinitely. Pastas can be coloured with spinach or beet juice. The addition of egg produces a richer[ ] yellower pasta that is usually made in noodle form and is often sold not dried.