Hyphenation
One tiny mark, one big job: the hyphen glues words together so they act as a single adjective. Master one question — "is this compound describing the noun that comes right after it?" — and most hyphen decisions make themselves.
The Core Rule: Hyphenate Before the Noun
When two or more words work together to describe a noun and they come before that noun, hyphenate them. The same words after the noun (or standing alone) take no hyphen:
| Before the noun: hyphen | After the noun / standing alone: no hyphen |
|---|---|
| a decision-making process | the process of decision making |
| a well-known researcher | the researcher is well known |
| middle-class families | families in the middle class |
| a follow-up survey | we will follow up next month |
| same-day results | results arrived the same day |
Why it matters: the hyphen prevents misreading. A "small group intervention" could be a small intervention for groups; a "small-group intervention" is unambiguously an intervention for small groups.
Ages Follow the Same Rule
The -ly Exception
Adverbs ending in -ly never take a hyphen, even before a noun. The -ly already tells readers the word modifies what follows, so the hyphen would be redundant:
The same goes for comparatives and superlatives: "a better known theory," "the most cited article" — no hyphens.
Prefixes: Usually No Hyphen
APA closes up most prefixed words — no hyphen after non-, pre-, post-, multi-, co-, re-, anti-, inter-, semi-:
Three exceptions where the hyphen stays:
| Exception | Example |
|---|---|
| self- compounds (always hyphenated) | self-esteem, self-report, self-regulation |
| Before a capitalized word | post-Freudian, anti-American |
| Before a number | post-2020 data, pre-1990 studies |
Practice
Question 1
Which sentence is hyphenated correctly?
Question 2
Which phrase is correct?
Question 3
Which set follows APA's prefix rules?
Question 4
Fill in the blank: "The researchers recruited ______ for the study."