The Online Scholar Institute

A hyphen (-) is a punctuation mark used to connect words or parts of words together. It’s used to clarify meaning and avoid ambiguity.

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Common Uses:
✅ Compound words:

• Example: mother-in-law, well-being, high-quality
• These combine two or more words to form a single concept.

✅ Word breaks at the end of a line:

• If a long word doesn’t fit at the end of a line, a hyphen can split it between syllables.
• Example:
  • “The lady was truly one-of-a-
    kind.”

✅ Prefixes:

• Sometimes prefixes are hyphenated, especially to avoid confusion.
• Example: ex-husband, re-enter

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Example in a Sentence:

• She adopted a two-year-old cat from the shelter.
• “Two-year-old” is hyphenated because it’s a compound adjective describing “cat.”

And there you have it. Now go ahead and use hyphens correctly in your CXC prep/ CSEC prep.

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