How to use hyphens in Spanish

Guide to Spanish hyphens (-)

A hyphen (guion) is narrower than an en dash (–). It is mainly used to show that a word continues onto the next line of text.

Hyphens also allow us to form compound words.

Read on to learn about hyphens in Spanish with Lingolia.

Contents

End of a line

When a word does not fit on a line of text (in a book or document for example), it must be split with a hyphen between syllables.

Example:
Hoy he estado dando un paseo por el par-
que hasta que se ha puesto el sol.Today I took a walk in the park until sunset.

Compund words

Hyphens allow us to form compound words in Spanish:

Double-barelled names

Some surnames in Spanish are double-barrelled. Each person has two surnames: they receive the father’s first surname and the mother’s first surname. However, if a family also wishes to preserve the father’s or mother’s second surname, a double-barrelled surname is formed.

Example:
Cristina Gómez-Jiménez López
→ Gómez-Jiménez (first last name) López (second last name)

Common nouns

Hyphens are used to combine common nouns to make a new word.

Example:
relación calidad-precioprice/quality ratio

Adjectives

Compound words can also be formed from two adjectives. The first adjective stays in the masculine form; the second agrees with the noun it refers to.

  • Nationalities and demonyms can be written with or without a hyphen depending on whether we are referring to each one independently or not
    Examples:
    la ciudad hispanorromanathe Hispano-Roman city
    el ciudadano francocanadiensethe Franco-Canadian citizen
    la frontera chileno-argentinathe Chilean-Argentine border
    la película ítalo-francesathe Italian-French film
  • Two adjectives that refer to the same noun are written with a hyphen
    Examples:
    el análisis lingüístico-literariothe linguistic-literary analysis
    el nivel socio-económicothe socio-economic level

Prefixes

Generally speaking, prefixes are written without a hyphen.

Examples:
prerrománicopre-romanesque
anticapitalistaanticapitalist
posguerrapost-war

However, a hyphen is used when the word attached to the prefix is an acronym, a number or capitalised.

Examples:
anti-ALCAanti-ALCA
super-8super 8 camera
pro-Obamapro-Obama

The prefix is only written separately and without a hyphen when it affects two or more terms that function as a single unit.

Example:
ex vice primer ministraformer Vice Prime Minister
anti pena de muerteanti death penalty

Letters and numbers

Expressions that combine a word or a letter with a number are written with a hyphen.

Examples:
Olimpiadas Barcelona-92the Barcelona ‘92 Olympics
la carretera comarcal M-100the M-100 regional road
película super-8Super-8 film

Numerical expressions

  • Dates use a hyphen to separate days, months and years.
    Example:
    30-05-201930th May 2019
  • Numerical ranges separate each figure with a hyphen.
    Examples:
    páginas 10-124 pages 10-124
    año académico 2013-2014school year 2013-2014
    siglos V-XVthe 5th-15th centuries