Compound Words

Knowing when to use a hyphen or space between compound words can be tricky. The easiest way to learn when to use each is by becoming familiar with seeing them in print. Reading great books like those on our FREE Book List builds children’s vocabulary and helps them know when to hyphenate words!

Hyphenated compound words are easy to identify by a hyphen, rather than a space, used between each word. The rules for when to use a hyphen in a compound word can be a bit confusing.

For example, in the sentence, “He took a year-long journey through South America,” a hyphen is used between the words year and long because the words are used as an adjective.

Used as nouns, however, hyphenated compound words look like this: “We gave the traveler a big send-off as he boarded the plane.”