Use of hyphens with prefixes

does anyone have a good rule-of-thumb on how to use hyphens with prefixes? since i have a lot of german speakers who write english, i even get confused cause they throw them in everywhere. one uk collegue said the americans tend not use hyphens and the brits do, or was it the other way around? for example, which one is correct:

sub attributes
sub-attributes
subattributes

i have gone to the online chicago manual of style, but i was left more confused. 'course LEO & other online dictionaries only recognize "sub attributes", but i would never write it that way.

i have a helluva time trying to get developers to write "design time" as two words, but "runtime" as one and not use any hyphens.

is correct. The hyphen is totally unnecessary. And two words are simply wrong here (as you say, "sub" is a prefix).
It's a case-by-case case. But in general prefix+noun/adjective/adverb/verb makes one word. Hyphenation only necessary to avoid ambiguity and general confusion.
The case of "runtime" is not as simple as "run" is a noun/verb in its own right. That really is a case-by-case problem.

as jeeves states subattributes is right.

the Hypen is less used in US pratice. im in the communication dept and i have this trouble all the time. these rules are for UK english.

words with prefixes are often set as one word, but use a hyphen to avoid consufsion or mispronunciations, particularly where there is a collision of vowels or consonants. re-entry, de-ice, etc.

use a hyphen where a prefix is repeated (eg. re-release) or with another word (eg. re-form)

thank you. it's a helpful start.

A "sub attribute" would be the attribute of a sub.

Debbie puts it much better.
"re-form" meaning "to form again" to distinguish from "reform" meaning "to reform"

well i would say submarine, anyhow


i think i got it!

There is an ok article in the Wikipedia.

Speaking of which, does anyone know which keyboard combo one uses to get the longer dashes?

If in Word, it will happen automatically if you write the first word, leave a space, type a dash, leave a space, type the next word and add a space.

Cool, thanks, beer.

Usually, but sometimes it doesn't kick in, so you can create a shortcut. Go to Insert, Symbol, find the relevant symbol and then create a shortcut. But this only works within Word, I haven't worked out how you get the longer dash into emails or here on Toytown - and using that pathetic short one annoys me. (And is wrong.)