What Is a Hyphen? (Grammar Talks Paragraph)
There are many different types of punctuation, along with many different ways to use them. Hyphens are an especially confusing type of punctuation, in that a hyphen can be used in many different contexts. A hyphen (-) is used to join together words and ideas, in order to make the actual meaning clear to the reader; it is not to be confused with dashes or underscores. Hyphens are used with compound words and adjectives (mother-in-law) (one-way-street; one-way needs a hyphen to clarify you aren’t discussing the one-way-street, or etc.) (hard-core). Hyphens are also included in all written numbers between 21-99, as well as all spelled-out fractions and measurements that don’t start with a or an (one-fourth vs. a fourth). For nouns (or adjectives) combined with participles, we also usually need to include a hyphen (fast-acting (present participle), cold-blooded (past participle)). For certain prefixes, we need a hyphen as well. Words like self-satisfied, or all-knowing use a hyphened prefix to indicate the words are acting as one noun or adjective. Hyphens are one of the few punctuation marks that can also be used simply to clarify your ideas, if checking a dictionary is not possible (concealed-weapons permit; we need a hyphen to indicate what type of permit it is, rather than the idea that someone has concealed their weapons permit) (small-town charm; we need a hyphen to indicate that the charm itself is “small-town”, not that there is small “town-charm” or something similar).
Links:
https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/hyphen.html
https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/hyphens.asp
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/hyphen/
