Help! A. A hyphen is usually superfluous; write "five feet and two inches tall," "five feet and two inches," "five foot two," and so on. A hyphen, on the other hand, is useful in formulations like "five-two." There is no space following the sign for feet if you write "5'2". (a prime symbol). B. If you are writing in words instead of numbers, most writers leave a space after the number but not after the height measurement. So, you would write "he is five feet eight inches tall" or perhaps "he is 5'8" tall. C. If you are writing in numbers only, there is no need to include any punctuation marks beside them. So, you could write "5'8". D. If you are writing in words and numbers together, a hyphen is necessary between the number and the height measurement. So, you would write "he is 5-2.".