AFFIXED WORDS Hyphens can be used to join an 'affix' to a word. In American English, hyphens are used only when their absence could lead to misunderstanding, whereas British English consistently uses hyphens to separate prefixes from the main part of the word. Thus, many more words with affixes appear hyphenated in British English than in American English. Only American English provides clear guidelines on when to separate an affix from the main word. The following rules are applied by most dictionaries and guides in the United States. Use a hyphen to avoid doubling or tripling consonants and vowels. (anti-immune, de-energize) Use a hyphen to separate self-, ex-, all-, vice-, quasi- and the suffixes -like, -wise and -elect from the main word. (self-respect, ex-wife, all-inclusive) Use a hyphen to when the main word is a number or a proper noun (nouns that are capitalized, such as names and nationalities). (the post-Kekkonen era, non-Finnish) The following page will help you to grasp these American and British differences in hyphen use.

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