Hyphens · Year 6

In Year 6 you learn: hyphens in describing words: a well-known writer; hyphens in numbers and fractions; hyphens that change the meaning: re-sign and resign.

A hyphen - is a short mark with no spaces that joins words or parts of words: a well-known writer, re-enter, twenty-one. Joining words with a hyphen can change what they mean.

Key facts

• Two or more words that work together to describe a noun take hyphens: a part-time job, a ten-year-old boy, an up-to-date map.
• No hyphen after a word ending in -ly or after very: a brightly coloured kite, a very tall tree.
• Numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine have a hyphen, and so do fractions in words: forty-seven, two-thirds.
• A hyphen can change the meaning: re-sign (sign again) and resign (leave a job); a man-eating shark (a shark that eats people) and a man eating shark (a man who is eating shark).

Worked examples

Other years

• Hyphens · Year 7
• Hyphens · Year 8