It has a nice name, the hyphen. It is a “graphic sign in the form of a small dash, explains us Larousse.fr, which we put in particular between the elements of certain compound words [tire-fesses, passe-muraille, presse-citron…] or between the verb and a postposed pronoun [suis-moi, écoute-la, tais-toi…]”. It has existed in French texts since the 16th century.
The problem, is that we often want to put it where it is not needed … And sometimes, we forget to put it where it is needed. The last reform of the spelling, that of 1990, proposes to weld a quantity of compound words, such as millefeuille, bienaimé, midwife, tirebouchon, invitation, etc. This is optional since, I remind you, this reform does not impose anything.
For certain words, personally, I adopt: miniskirt, for example, it suits me in a word, it’s shorter, like a miniskirt, what! But for others, it is more difficult for me to get used to it: croquem monsieur, bat or boutentrain in one word, it gives me hives. The good news is that both spellings are possible. So, friends of words, we do what we want.
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On the other hand, I often correct hyphens that have been added where they are not needed.
I think the two I correct most often relate to the Middle Ages and New York. Nothing to see, but it’s like that! The Middle Ages is therefore written in two words, without a hyphen, as is New York. On the other hand, and this is probably what causes the error in the latter case, New Yorkers take a hyphen. Why ? New York is the American name of an American city, we don’t Frenchize it, we write it like the Americans do. New Yorkers, on the other hand, it’s French. And we can “hyphenate”.
Other traps to avoid: we write “home” in two words, without a hyphen, but “my home” with a hyphen, because then we speak of a “home” , these two words were transformed into a common name. The same goes for déjà vu or never-seen. “I have never seen that” or “he has already seen”, no hyphen before seen, but “it is deja-vu”, “it is never-seen”, both elements form a common name, and this transformation is materialized very conveniently by a hyphen, which “unites” them, as the name suggests.
Another common mistake: “right here” is written without a hyphen. Even is only preceded by a hyphen when it reinforces a personal pronoun (myself, yourself, himself). Otherwise, remember: “Even, not even a hyphen! “.
