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II.  ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE

Rule 8: Divide Words at Line-Ends, in Accordance with Their Formation and Pronunciation.

If there is room at the end of a line for one or more syllables of a word, but not for the whole word, divide the word, unless this involves cutting off only a single letter, or cutting off only two letters of a long word. No hard and fast rule for all words can be laid down. The principles most frequently applicable are:

1. Divide the word according to its formation:

• know-ledge (not knowl-edge); Shake-speare (not Shakes-peare); de-scribe (not des-cribe); atmo-sphere (not atmos-phere);

2. Divide "on the vowel:"

• edi-ble (not ed-ible); propo-sition; ordi-nary; espe-cial; reli-gious; oppo-nents; regu-lar; classi-fi-ca-tion (three divisions possible); deco-rative; presi-dent;

3. Divide between double letters, unless they come at the end of the simple form of the word:

• Apen-nines; Cincin-nati; refer-ring; but tell-ing.

4. The treatment of consonants in combination is best shown from examples:

• for-tune; pic-ture; presump-tuous; illus-tration; sub-stan-tial (either division); indus-try; instruc-tion; sug-ges-tion; incen-diary.

The student will do well to examine the syllable-division in a number of pages of any carefully printed book.