Copywriting Grammar: Hyphens
Hyphens (-)
Not to be confused with dashes (–), hyphens join two words so that they work together in modifying a noun. I’ve separated this from the other punctuation because rather than acting on the syntax of a sentence, it merely affects individual words and their meanings — in a very important way.
Here’s an example without a necessary hyphen:
Customers receive two hundred dollar rebates!
This sentence is ambiguous. The customer may be getting:
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Two separate, one-hundred dollar rebates
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Customers receive two hundred-dollar rebates!
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Individual rebates worth two-hundred-dollars each
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Customers receive two-hundred-dollar rebates!
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Here’s a possible issue with our coffee-flavored televisions:
Order your black coffee television today!
You may think the offer is for a coffee television that is black, but what I really meant was:
Order your black-coffee television today!
Here, I’m very clear that the television is being modified by “black-coffee.” In other words, black-coffee is its own item thanks to the hyphen.