924: Hyphens Jun 20, 2017

Those writing in English use very few hyphens even if it could make things a great deal clearer. Even though they may not be included in writing, there is a difference in speech where they could be present. For example, a native speaker of English would use a different intonation for "I'm in a car" versus "I'm in a car-park", though the change is subtle. Hyphens, just like any other type of punctuation, aren't technically pronounced, so the only reason to use them instead of combining the words together, as happens for German words, is convention, though there some exceptions like 'busstop'. The effect of hyphenated pairs becomes more appararent in German as well, and there's no better example than with the word 'eierstock'. That term meaning 'ovaries' but is masculine in gender, because while 'ei' is neuter, it is only the last element that dictates the syntax. While English doesn't have grammatical gender, but for pluralization, for example, 'car' in 'car-parks' is not declined, since just like an adjective in English, there is no modification regardless of syntax.