Hyphenation for “tail off”
Showing how to split the syllables of “tail off”.
What is the correct hyphenation for “tail off”? The purpose of hyphenation is to separate a word such as "tail off" 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 “tail off” 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: „tail off“ ⟶
„tail off“.
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".