"Half a teaspoon" or "half a teaspoon": how to write words correctly with half and half - Lifehacker

RootWriting half-, half- with words "Half-" can be written in three combinations - together, with a hyphen or separately. In fact, there is nothing complicated here: look at the first letter of the word that comes after it, and sometimes also at the number of words.

1. "Half-" in compound words is written togetherMerged, hyphenated and separate spelling rules with nouns and ordinal numbers that function as nouns if they begin with a consonant. Moreover, the second part of a compound word is usually in the genitive case. An exception is words that begin with "l" (except for "half a liter" - this is just what you needExplanatory dictionary Ozhegov: half liter write together).

Examples: "Half an hour", "half a meter", "half past five".

2. The hyphen is necessaryMerged, hyphenated and separate spelling rules put when the second part of the word begins with a consonant "l" or a vowel. He is also neededWriting half-, half- with words, if there is a second hyphen in the attached part of the word, and also when usingMerged, hyphenated and separate spelling rules with proper names.

Examples: “Half past ten”, “half of Moscow”, “half of the online conference”.

3. "Half-" is spelled separatelyMerged, hyphenated and separate spelling ruleswhen there is an agreed definition between it and the noun. Simply put, if you attach this root to a phrase, you must write it separately, otherwise the meaning will be distorted.

Examples: “Half a teaspoon”, “half of the Moscow region”, “half a cherry orchard”.

4. In general, everything is simple with "semi-" - always write it togetherConcatenated and hyphenated spellings.

Examples: "Peninsula", "half year", "half-woolen".