Hyphenation for “department store”
Showing how to split the syllables of “department store”.
What is the correct hyphenation for “department store”? The purpose of hyphenation is to separate a word such as "department store" because otherwise it would be too long and would no longer fit on one line. This separation not only saves space it improves the visually flow of the text. This word separation exists in most languages. In English, the word separation of “department store” is based on the speech syllables. The separating syllable in linguistics is therefore the smallest group of sounds in the natural flow of speech.
As a separator, the classic hyphen is usually used: „department store“ ⟶
„de-part-ment store“.
Hyphens are occasionally used to denote syllabification, as in syl-la-bi-fi-ca-tion. Various British and North American dictionaries use an interpunct, sometimes called a "middle dot" or "hyphenation point", for this purpose, as in syl·la·bi·fi·ca·tion. This allows the hyphen to be reserved only for places where a hard hyphen is intended (for example, self-con·scious, un·self-con·scious, long-stand·ing). Similarly, hyphens may be used to indicate how a word is being or should be spelled. For example, W-O-R-D spells "word".