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I've just finished (well, about an hour ago!) editing some proofs for a magazine. The later it got, the more stymied I felt by a certain conundrum: how and when to hyphenate.
The one I got all hung up on was this:
see the exhibits in the third floor gallery.
(something like that) Well, I wound up hyphenating "third" with "floor" because the two words together describe "gallery." But that doesn't always hold true....
Usually I use my instincts when hyphenating, but I was known as the Hyphenation Queen when I used to work at a local newspaper - from which I gathered that no one else hyphenates quite like yours truly, or perhaps not quite as much as.... Does anyone know a rule for hyphenation? one of those handy, easily-remembered rules? is there such a thing?
and am I allowed to post a question about hyphenating in Q&A About Words or should I have done this somewheres else?
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easily-remembered rulesHi, mg. I, too, usually hyphenate by instinct, but I think the most basic rule is use a hyphen whenever needed for clarity. Another rule, if I remember correctly, is that you do use a hyphen with a two-word modifier unless the two words are usually read as one. IMO, whether "third floor" qualifies under that exception is a judgment call, but I probably would have hyphened it. I do know that a hyphen is NOT necessary with "ly" words - that's one rule that does stick in my mind (must have had an English teacher who drummed it into us). So, from one hyphenation queen to another, hyphen away! We'll find a use for all the ones other people leave out. 
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I plead guilty to using hypens by instinct when they may well be "un-necessary".
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mg: Your instincts appear to be serving you just fine.
Third-floor and easily-remembered both conform to a rule I learned long ago: to hyphenate words that are strung together to form adjectives. Aside from that there are obvious situations, e.g. the McCain-Feingold bill, that would retain the hyphen even if the noun bill were not included. Thus if I go to high school, I am a high-school student.
Now I should look into all those commas I use.
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The Associated Press Stylebook has a three-quarter page entry on use of hyphens. The AP rules open with this : "Hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words."
And if you think for one minute I'm going into all the permutations ....well!
(For Stylebook read "you'd better follow these rules or else!) Their attitude, not mine. So -ate merrily away!
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A few rules and some examples I found on Englishplus.com/grammar:
Hyphenated Compound Words
Hyphens are used internally in some compound words to separate the words forming the compound word.
Examples: merry-go-round editor-in-chief
When unsure of the hyphenation of such words, check a dictionary. Usage may vary. As some words are more widely used, the hyphen in dropped. For example, in the early 1800's the word blackbird was usually spelled black-bird. Now the hyphen has been dropped.
Hyphens connect the words of a compound modifier that comes before the word being modified. Hyphens are not used this way with compound parts ending in -ly or made up of proper nouns or proper adjectives.
Incorrect: He is a well respected man.
Correct: He is a well-respected man.
(A compound modifier before the noun.)
Incorrect: That man is well-respected.
Correct: That man is well respected.
(The modifier follows the noun, no hyphen.)
Incorrect: That was a badly-punctuated sentence.
Correct: That was a badly punctuated sentence.
(Modifier ends in -ly, no hyphen.)
Incorrect: The South-American rain forest is home to hundreds of species of hummingbirds.
Correct: The South American rain forest is home to hundreds of species of hummingbirds.
(Modifier is proper, no hyphen.)
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Thanks, that's very helpful! (all of you!) I feel another thread post coming on, to do with the Australian habit of leaving out the apostrophe for a possessive name (Ayers Rock is just one example of many I saw while I was down there....!). Or...nah, maybe not. 
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I've posted on this matter before but, seeing as I represent a majority of one, I feel I have the right to repeat myself.
My rule for hyphens was inflicted upon me whilst writing scientific (geological) articles in Australian English. In this subspecies of the language, hyphens are reserved for one application, the separating of mineral names in a mineral "assemblage". Thus one may read about a "talc-tremolite schist" or a "pyrite-chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite ore".
This is also the same school that teaches us that all "-ly" words are a waste of printers' ink and that they detract from the Scientific Purpose of the paper. (OK OK Faldage, I heard you before.....)
Shakespeare it's not I know, but my hyphen rule is simple to follow (there's none of 'em!) and my "-ly" rule makes for more objective statements (IMHO).
stales
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I'll definitely go with clarity as the overriding criterion. In the case of the third floor gallery I would say that if the gallery in question were a floor gallery and there were at least two others then there could be some confusion as to what third floor gallery meant. Since this is unlikely to be the case I say don't bother putting a hyphen in there.
Regarding the easily remembered rules, easily is an adverb (the -ly rule is an oversimplification; there are adverbs that don't end in -ly, e.g., well and words that end in -ly that aren't adverbs) and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Thus in the easily remembered rules, easily cannot modify rules; no ambiguity, no hyphen.
The hyphen has also been used to link separate words that form a single concept in a transitional form between the concept as a two word phrase and as a single word. Baseball used to be written Base Ball, two words, no hyphen. It is presently universally written as one word (by such people with enough good taste in sports to write the word at all). There was a fairly long period from the late nineteenth century to the early middle twentieth when both forms were in use and it was also written base-ball.
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I agree with you on everything except the third sentence in your last paragraph. I accept your right to write it. Don't expect the rest of us to believe it!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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