Hyphen in the middle of a sentence - (q/Q)uestion?

As in the title, there is a hyphen in the middle of a sentence, and I am wondering if you should make the first letter after it a capital letter or not?

I use hyphens in the middle of sentences a lot so want to double check on this, but I think I am doing it right.

 

Generally you'll capitalize the first letter of the first word after punctuation, but different people use different title rules - like case title capitalization or just capitalizing the first letter of the first word. I've noticed it being mostly a geographical thing.

 

I am not speaking just for title, but even in the middle of a sentence inside an article.

You answerred my question without even knowing it actually, and I am doing it the right way.

Do not capitalize after hyphen, but in the title it is common. Well generally, I will capitalize most words, not the small ones, but you get the idea. After a hyphen in title, if it's even just the letter A, I will still capitalize.

Last thing for me to work on is my punctuation/quotation.

That party last night was, as Ghandi would say "peaceful(.)"(.)

Not really sure whether the punctuation will go inside the quotation or outside. Someone on here told me before it goes inside, but to stop a sentence inside a quotation seems a little (funny?). <--- Something like that would get me wondering too.

Thanks, good to get a response from one of the more talented writers around here.

 

In that quotation, the period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

 

What if it is not a direct quotation, but just a use of quotes? Example: jhmattern is what we would call a "pro"

Also, could a hyphen in the middle of a sentence be used as a period to have direct relation between the two sentences?

Example:

I suppose it is possible to leave it without capital and it would really be one sentence, but couldn't a hyphen be used secondary to a period?

 

Periods always go inside the quotes at the end of a sentence.

In the OP, I think you're asking about a dash, which acts like a comma. It's slightly longer than a hypen or is sometimes displayed as two hyphens.

Hyphens typically separate compound nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For example, lower-cased. They're also used to divide a word across a line break.

With a dash, you'd only capitalize the next word if it should be capitalized anyway. We went to the store today--Tuesday is shopping day--to pick up some groceries.

 

hypen?

I know that it is used for compound nouns, but the whole dash thing is far from what I am trying to express, very far - women are from Venus, and men are from mars kind of far.

 

Though you didn't type it as a dash, that thing between "far" and "women" is functionally a dash.

A dash is used, among other things, to "indicate an abrupt stop or change in thought." (click the link for more ways a dash is used.)

When to Use a Hyphen should also help.

Sorry to get so technical, we've deviated from your original question. Hopefully, you understood the answer I gave in my previous post that the next word wouldn't be capitalized unless it would be capitalized anyway, e.g. a proper noun.

 

It makes sense that it would only be capitalized if it was supposed to be (I, John, etc) and to be capiatlized in titles as well, but I don't see where you are going about connecting the words.

Far-women is not a compound, is it? I am thinking about a hyphen, not a dash, assuming there is a major difference, to pretty much to divide two related statements.

 

What she's saying is that it's technically incorrect the way you wrote it. It should be written: "... very far -- women are from Venus, and men are from mars kind of far."

I'm the first to admit though, when blogging or on forums, I always use a single hyphen - it just looks ridiculous otherwise, and those are casual environments. However, if you go into your word processor and type that sentence with two hyphens used as a dash, it will generally convert it into the correct longer dash for you (as it's actually supposed to look). So what you were asking about was in fact a dash, and not a hyphen. It was just a case of me being a poor role model in my original response (and in a way I'm sure I'll continue to be where I write casually).

 

Thanks Jenn. I didn't know how to quite explain it. You're right, too. In casual environments, there's no need to use the --. Readers know what you mean and it looks a little pretentious anyway, lol. In less formal environments, I rely on MS Word to automatically create the longer dash for me.

Now all this talk's going to have me analyzing my dashes and hyphen for the next couple of days. I finally stopped typing two spaces between my sentences after another conversation we had on here.

 

In print media publishing, a dash is longer than a hyphen, but on the internet they're usually printed the same way (i.e. single-sized), because the dash isn't on a normal keyboard and a single hyphen is usually used as a substitute for it.

 

Sometimes I use Alt+0150 to get that dash.

 

Actually, I just figured it was all the same thing but just noticed now that MS Word always extends it a little bit. I think in forums and MSN I'll continue to use just one as it does look funny not getting connected.

My alt commands don't work, stupid keyboard.