The dash is a punctuation mark that is similar in appearance to the hyphen and minus sign but. Hyphen, en dash or em dash a hyphen is used to connect two words that function as a particular concept, or when linked together form a particular modifier. You might have relatives aged 252, or a flight to catch from austindetroit, or a baseball game that your team wins 42. A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualize the en dash as the length of the letter n and the em dash as the length of the letter m. A figure dash is a dash which is the same width as a digit in fonts where all digits are the same width and is used for alignment purposes. Thousands of childrenlike the girl in this photographhave been left homeless. In the eleventh edition of the blue book of grammar and punctuation february 2014, and on our website, we are letting the hyphen do the work of the en dash, and the em dash is simply now the dash or long dash. Dashes punctuation academic guides at walden university. En dashes should not be confused with hyphens, which are used in compound words e. Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable. Place the text cursor after the em dash or en dash. Say you want to say the arizona texas border, arizonatexas the en dash works well there too. Its a minefield and wed rather leave this matter to the printers.
Dont replace the second emdash as some tend to with a comma or semicolon. I recommend this to anyone who writes fiction or nonfiction books or articles. The farlex grammar book english punctuation dashes dashes what is a dash. Dash is a punctuation mark that is used in two different forms called em dash and en dash. One em is the same length as the fonts height which is typically measured in points. Although many people call the hyphen a dash, dash refers to another group of horizontal lines in text. Do you think you have the hyphen, en dash, and em dash. Its also important that when you set off a phrase using em dashes that you used one emdash immediately after the noun the phrase is describing and one immediately after the phrase. If you are uncertain how to insert an en dash symbol, you can use a hyphen instead.
Few keyboards have a dash, but a word processor can usually produce one in one way or another. Pllalquk1ndrhq44leu1dybejdgxr7june watch more grammar lessons videos. For more detail on the use of hyphens, en dashes, em dashes. The en dash is wider than a hyphen and narrower than an em dash.
In appearance, an en dash is slightly longer than a hyphen, approximately the width of a capital n, while an em dash is slightly longer than an en dash. When to use a hyphen, an en dash or an em dash pr daily. One exception is, of course, when the hyphen is used as a minus sign. To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, ill start by comparing two sentences.
Lets look at examples of dashes, the rules for using the en dash, and compare how dashes are used in writing. For both en dashes and em dashes, do not put any spaces before or after the dashes. It was foolishand you said it wasto think that writing the corporate style guide would be fun. We use em dashes to add emphasis to the size of the car. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash. When and how to use the dash, the en dash, and the em dash. Highlight the em dash or en dash using your mouse, then press the delete key. To type an em dash on a macintosh keyboard, use shiftoptionhyphen. Essay writing skills book writing tips writing words teaching writing academic writing essay words email writing dissertation writing teaching grammar. There are two similar but distinct punctuation marks called dashes.
Writers love em dashes as much as hunters love swiss army knives. Another way that you can use the en dash is if youre talking about a border perhaps. En dashes are longer than a hyphen, but half the length of the em dash. British english uses an en dash with spaces instead of an em dash for asides and appositives.
Nor should they be confused with em dashes the subject of next weeks post. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. An en dash is a punctuation mark that is slightly wider than a hyphen but narrower than an em dash. How to insert an en dash or em dash in microsoft word. Em dashes can also be used to convey a more emphatic aside. It can be used in phrasal adjectives, to show a range or span, or to show conflict or connection. If youre writing for a newspaper, magazine, or website that uses associated. I will try to condense the various bits of information scattered throughout cmos. It got such a name because, in fact, it is the same width as the letter n. Learn how and when to use dashes with examples and esl worksheet. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. It is used to interrupt a sentence or to emphasize a phrase.
So they replaced the hyphen with the en dash, which is longer than a hyphen but shorter than a long dash. The horizontal bar or the em dash, but not the en dash, introduces quoted text at line start. Otherwise, you may find yourself guilty of making funny punctuation mistakes. Dont leave the two hyphens if they dont merge to form the em dash. In all of those circumstances, you would be using an en dash. When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, mostbut not allstyle books advocate putting space neither before nor after them. The en dash, also sometimes called the n dash or nrule, is socalled because it is.
Its easy to use the hyphen, em dash and en dash also known as n dash and m dash, or ndash and m dash to make your writing flow better. First of all, there are three lengths of what are all more or less dashes. The associated press style always the outlier insists on spacing both before and after the em dash. I read on a grammar blog recently that the em dash is named after its lengthits about the same width as the capital letter m. En and em dashes and hyphens one thing editors do is to fuss with punctuation, especially dashes. If your word document has an em dash or en dash and you want to remove it, do one of the following. Dashes grammar book em dash space grammar girl earlier. Here at above the law, we prefer using a space before and after our em dashes its less visually disruptive. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better.
Three horizontal bars of punctuation, of different lengths, but which to choose for which job. If youre anything like me, you might typically use guesswork on a. Many writers neglect the n dash and only use a hyphen or an em dash. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. How to use the hyphen, en dash and em dash ndash mdash, n. However, should we be using xhtml character entity references for dashes and other common typographical characters when writing blog posts on cmss like wordpress or hardcoding websites by hand. This is often the same width as an en dash, but does not need to be. Most books and many magazines would pick the en dash.
Dashes, like commas, semicolons, colons, ellipses, and parentheses, indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. So in 9point type, an em dash is 9 points wide, while in 24point type the em. The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. The em dash draws a readers attention, partly because of the physical separation that the longer dash creates and partly because these dashes appear less frequently than hyphens and en dashes. The en dash is shorter, named after the width of the letter n, and the em dash is longer, named after the width of the letter m. The en dash is used when connecting ranges, and it replaces to in those ranges. They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase. A horizontal bar is often used as a quotation dash, and so has a different meaning to an em dash. Em dashes, en dashes and hyphens mistakes writers make. The em dash, em rule, or mutton is longer than an en dash. The dash, also called the em dash, is the long horizontal bar, much longer than a hyphen.
Hyphen, en dash or em dash english grammar, grammar. The character is called an em dash because it is one em wide, a length that varies depending on the font size. Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption. In most american print and ebooks, correct em dash formation is done by using two hyphens with no spacing, which then becomes an em dash also called the long dash in most word processing programs as you continue typing. An em dash, or long dash, is used in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence. Dash vs hyphen dash and hyphen are different punctuation marks that are in the form of small straight lines, which makes it difficult to differentiat.
Em dashes as stated previously, the chicago manual of style and the oxford guide to style both recommend using the em dash for parenthetical expressions. Turns out the em dash also known as an m dash, mrule, the long dash, or, in the grammatical slang circles, mutton, and i am not making that up is just that extended dash you see. For example, em dashes are used when a parenthetical remark contains an internal comma or would otherwise sound awkward if enclosed by commas. What is the difference in usage between an em dash and an en dash. Hyphens, en dashes, em dashes the chicago manual of. Find out whether you need spaces on either side of an emdash. While em dash is long, en dash is the shorter of the two.
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