40165
I am reading the Japanese for Busy People book and I notice in the dictionary
in the back some of the words ending in san use a hyphen:

```

    okyaku-san
    
```

and some don't

```

    okosan
    
```

Sometimes they use a hyphen after o-

```

    o-kashi
    
```

and sometimes not

```

    okyaku-san
    
```

Does anyone have any idea why they do this?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-10-20T06:39:29.630
40161
2016-10-20T06:51:31.283
2016-10-20T06:50:03.443
9831
17660
question
word-choice words rōmaji
In romaji is it okosan or oko-san?
I don't think there is a "right way". There are many ways to use romaji and
each with their own rules. In general, names like Takeda-san, Takahashi-san
tend to use the hyphen while words like okasan, otosan, etc tend to not use
them.

The hyphen after the o is probably used to indicate that the o is not part of
the word itself but just a polite prefix. But to use it or not is also
dependent on what kind of romaji rules you abide to.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-10-20T06:46:07.577
40165
2016-10-20T06:51:31.283
2016-10-20T06:51:31.283
7810
18142
40161
answer