Several words can have the same common root in English. It is the prefix or suffix that determines a word's part of speech. 

For example, the word sense, which is a verb with the root sens, means “to feel.” Now take a look at the following:

sense (verb)
Used in a sentence: I sense that Sam is scared of the dark. 

sensible (adj)
Used in a sentence: Taylor is a sensible person.

sensibly (adv)
Used in a sentence:  Rob sensibly saved some of his pocket money. 

sensibleness (noun)
Used in a sentence: Lucy’s sensibleness made the whole class behave. 

Note that although all these words have the same root, sens, the meaning and part of speech changes depending on the suffix. When the adjective sensible takes the suffix -ness, it becomes the noun sensibleness. When this adjective takes the suffix -ly, it becomes the adverb sensibly. 

• A hyphen is primarily used to join two words and create a compound word. For example, a hyphen connects the words user and friendly to form user-friendly.

• Hyphens also help clarify the meanings of some words that can be ambiguous or misunderstood. For example, the meaning of the word re-sign, which means “to sign again,” differs from resign, which means “to quit.” The words are pronounced differently too. The hyphen clarifies this difference in meaning and pronunciation. Look at these sentences to better understand the difference.

• The lease on Jake’s apartment is almost up, and he has to re-sign it. 

• Jake plans to resign from his job and move to New York.

• Hyphens are also often used with prefixes such as re-, ex-, pre-, self-, all-, and anti- and with suffixes such as -type, -like, and -elect.

Here are some examples of hyphens used with prefixes: re-cover, ex-boyfriend, pre-sales, self-righteous, all-purpose, anti-inflammatory. However, there are exceptions, such as the word reopen.

Here are some examples of hyphens used with suffixes: shell-like and president-elect. As you may have guessed, there are exceptions, such as the word childlike. If you are unsure about whether to use a hyphen with a prefix or suffix, check a dictionary.

• Hyphens are also used with letters, figures, and between a prefix and a capitalized word as in L-shaped mark, mid-thirties, post-war, T-shirt, and mid-November.

• The rules of hyphenation apply to line breaks as well. If a hyphenated word appears at the end of a line, then the word should be split at the hyphen:

That book was written by a well-
known author.

• If the word at the end of a line ends with the suffix -ing then the word can be broken using a hyphen before the suffix. If the consonant at the end of a word ending with -ing has been doubled, then the hyphen can be placed there. Look at these examples:

Tanya is driv-
ing a black sedan.

Kerry has been plan-
ning to renovate her studio.

• When other words need to be divided at the end of a line, the hyphen should be placed between syllables. For example, if the two-syllable word playful appears at the end of a line and must be divided, you can place the hyphen between the syllables: play-ful. If a three-syllable word appears at the end of a line and has to be divided, you can place the hyphen between any of the three syllables, for example, em-ploy-ee, and so on. 

Exceptions:

An exception to placing a hyphen between syllables when dividing a word at a line break is when the syllable at the start of the word is just one letter. In other words, the word at the end of a sentence must not be split by putting a hyphen after the first letter of the word. In such cases, the correct way to break a word using a hyphen is after the next syllable. For example, the word evaluate, can be broken with a hyphen on either side of the letter u:

Mrs. Jones wants to eval-
uate her students’ performance in the month of April.

or

Mrs. Jones wants to evalu-
ate her students’ performance in the month of April.

Finally, never add a hyphen before the suffix when a word has a two-letter suffix such as -ly or -ed. For example, if the word lovely appears at the end of a line, do not add a hyphen before the suffix and start a new line that begins with -ly.

Click here to see how to use hyphens to modify (change) words to add meaning. These notes are from ENG 11A!