Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
I think I got the rule from TeX and literature about it. Maybe it is not a word but "pre-tend" and "pretend" seems to me to be an example. In Swedish such examples are probably more common since we create new word by concatenating two words.
And when reading your brain have to do more work since if you have "off-hand" the you will read "offhand" and it will be harder to understand. Since typographical rules are there to enhance readability I think it is a good rule never to break the line at a hyphen.
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English, however, is a very "flexible" language and most grammar rules can be "broken". In the majority of hypenated words, it's perfectly OK to leave out the hypen. I like to put them in, so I write "off-hand", but many people would leave it out and write "offhand". Both are equally "right" (or "wrong").
Your example of "re-creation" v. "recreation" is a good example where the hyphen does change the meaning, but any native English speaker could immediately tell from the context which was meant in any particular sentence.
As I say, virtually all printed books will break lines at a hyphen, but it's something that no e-book format (that I know of) does currently do.