Guest  +  64874 Mon, 03 Jan 05 01:46 AM Greetings-- Is it true that most compounds with "non" are written with a hyphen in British English but are written as one word with no hyphen in American English? Or are things more complicated than this? Cheers Robert Guest American English, British English, Hyphens

	Best answer by Mister Micawber  +  64880 Mon, 03 Jan 05 02:35 AM In AmE, 'non-' and most other common prefixes are used without the hyphen except in the case of new coinages and words that look confusing without it, like 'non-Hodgkin's lymphoma'. I would be surprised if the rule were different in BrE. Mister Micawber Punctuation, Prefixes, Hyphenation

	Best answer by Anonymous  +  494007 Fri, 28 Mar 08 01:48 PM I'm afraid that in British English the rule *is* different. We do indeed tend to use hyphens after the prefix "non-" (which avoids the possibility of mispronouncing words such as "nonnative" ["non-native" in BrE]). As regards other prefixes, "pre-" and "co-" still sometimes take a hyphen (particularly where the second part of the word starts with a vowel and could lead to an erroneous pronunciation, e.g. pre-empt, co-opted). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "micro-organism" is also the preferred form, for similar reasons.  Anonymous Regards, British English, Punctuation, Vowels, Prefixes, Pronunciation, Hyphenation, Countries, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Speaking, Languages

	Grammar Geek  +  700399 Thu, 23 Apr 09 06:06 PM The best thing to do is consult a dictionary first. It will tell you if it's a closed compound (no space, no hyphen).     Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random! Punctuation, Hyphenation