Correctly hyphenating word breaks can be tricky. Who’d have thought that such a little, thin horizontal mark could make such a big difference in the spelling of a word when having to divide it?
Summary
(To cut a long story short …)
- Hyphenating correctly keeps text readable and visually balanced, especially in justified layouts.
- Clumsy line breaks and widows can ruin otherwise polished copy.
- Follow simple rules: avoid over-hyphenating, don’t split proper nouns and break words naturally or use different words to fit.
Wondering how to use a hyphen?
Copywriting involves a myriad of skills: writing, strategic thinking, coming up with creative ideas, account handling, accounting … and proof reading. Being a freelance copywriter means you don’t get to do very much of the latter because your copy disappears into some unseen place known only to the client or agency and re-emerges like a butterfly: set and in print and, quite often, with some really bad line breaks and widows making you heave a heavy sigh. (If you’re not sure what a widow is, head over to my blog about Typography In Advertising).
I really miss those agency days, checking through artwork and cutting out a word or two here and there, or sprinkling in a few to extend a sentence – all in pursuit of making the copy fit neatly in columns like tidy soldiers and on the page without any nasty gaps or ugly breaks. There’s something especially lovely about seeing elegantly justified text, tidily spaced letters and perfectly pleasing kerning.
End-of-line hyphenation is usually just for justified text and narrow columns. You don’t tend to see hyphenation that much in literature; it’s more common in French and Russian printed text.
When using a Mac or PC, a long word is automatically moved to the next line. And text in websites is responsive so the line end varies with the width of the screen, and every golden rule is broken.
However, I’m able to revel once again in checking end-of-line hyphenation in my side hustle as editor of The Journal for London Hilton on Park Lane. But some pesky words that insist on limbo dancing into the line of copy below can cause a headache. Thankfully, I’ve discovered some helpful solutions.
Where to hyphenate correctly
Let’s be fancy: word division is actually known as “syllabification”. It means splitting out a word into syllables, with the separation denoted by hyphens.
And it’s not as easy as you think. Where, for instance, would you break the following?
Tiddly
Panic
Morality
Abolition
Certify
Finite
Factor
There used to be a handy online option at Oxford Dictionaries, which was. highly trusted source. Sadly, that no longer exists but there is hyphenation24 instead by a German company with answers in English or German. If you really want to be on the safe side, you can find where syllable boundaries lie in any good dictionary. However, even quicker answers to your hyphenating conundrums can be discovered in this fantastic little hardback book: New Oxford Spelling Dictionary (The Writers’ and Editors’ Guide to Spelling and Word Division) available on Amazon.
How to hyphenate correctly
There are a few simple rules to follow:
- Don’t use end-of-line hyphenation on more than two lines in a row.
- Don’t hyphenate proper nouns.
- Try to use two or more letters at the line end and at least three at the start of the next line.
- If in doubt, split words at natural pauses such as between the two parts of a compound noun or between prefixes, roots and suffixes. Try saying the phrase out loud and see what feels natural.
- Finally, try to avoid having to hyphenate in the first place. Use a different, shorter word instead.
Answers:
Tid-dly
Pan-ic
Mo-ra-li-ty
Abo-li-tion
Cer-tify
Fi-nite
Fac-tor
Written by Caroline Gibson, London freelance copywriter and widow-hater
E: caroline@carolinegibson.co.uk T: +44 (0) 7957 567766