hyphenation - Why does "one half" have no hyphen, but "two-thirds" does?


I often see the fraction ⅔ written with a hyphen, but I never see ½ written with one. Is it correct to have the hyphen in two-thirds, and if so why don't we write one-half?



Answer



The Chicago Manual of Style has these guidelines:



For compounds formed with fractions:



  • The noun form is open (a half hour)

  • The adjective form is hyphenated (a half-hour session)


For simple fractions:



  • Hyphenated in noun, adjective, and adverb forms, except when second element is already hyphenated (one-half; one and three-quarters; one twenty-fifth)



So "1/2" should always be written out as one-half. (Unless it's in a sentence like "one half of a perfect pair," in which case it's not a fraction.)


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