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How to Hyphenate Minutes

Knowing when to properly use hyphens is often confusing. Hyphenating minute measurements can be especially challenging. However, numbers still follow the same set of rules regarding when and when not to hyphenate. Minutes are usually only hyphenated when they're used in a sentence or phrase as a compound adjective to describe a noun. Whether or not to hyphenate numbers also depends on the way the number is written. When spelled out, numbers one through ten do not require a hyphen. If you spell out 23, though, it's written "twenty-three."

Instructions

Using hyphenation for minutes
- 1
  Examine the phrase or sentence you've written or plan to write. Pay close attention to the sentence structure and how minutes will be used in the sentence.
- 2
  Determine whether you're using the number of minutes as an adjective to describe a noun. If so, hyphenate. For example, "Lisa took a 30-minute jog" is hyphenated between the number and minute measurement because it specifically describes the duration of Lisa's jog.
- 3
  Refrain from hyphenating the number of minutes if they're not modifying the noun. For example, you wouldn't hyphenate "Lisa's jog lasted 30 minutes" because in this case, "30 minutes" isn't an adjective.

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How to Hyphenate Minutes

Instructions

Using hyphenation for minutes