Table of Contents
Dashes come in three sizes, each with their own job:
- the em dash (the width of a non-proportional “m”)
- the en dash (the width of a non-proportional “n”)
- the hyphen (which looks like a minus sign)
Generally, only the hyphen and the longer dash appear in fiction.
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The EM Dash Connects Interrupted Thoughts or Explanations.
An em dash shows when a conversation, thought, or sentence structure is interrupted or trails off. The source of the interruption may be internal (a self-interruption), by the action of another, or by an external event.
Examples:
- “I didn’t mean—or maybe I did.”
- (Self-interruption)
- “I didn’t mean—” She stopped. He wasn’t listening.
- (Self-interruption)
- “How can anyone—never mind, we’ll figure it out.”
- (Self-interruption)
- “How can anyone—” He shot her a silencing look.
- (Interruption by an action of another)
- “I didn’t mean—”
- “Then why did you say what you said?”
- (Interruption by another)
- “How can anyone—”
- “Don’t ask. It doesn’t matter.”
- (Interruption by another)
- “I didn’t mean—”
- The chair in which she was sitting collapsed.
- (Interruption caused by her chair collapsing)
- “I didn’t mean—” Her hiccup startled them both.
- (Interruption caused by her hiccup)
Examples:
- “I’m not sure”—he hung his head—”what I think.”
- “I don’t”—she stomped her foot—”care what you think. Get out of here”—she pointed to the door—”now!”
A list may contain only one item.
Connecting the items in a lengthy list is better with commas than with repeated “and’s.”
Examples:
- Nearly thirty countries have flags with these three colors: red, white, and blue.
- Nearly thirty countries have flags with these three colors—red, white, and blue.
- She pulled out her grocery list, the shortest ever: milk and bread.
- She pulled out her grocery list, the shortest ever—milk and bread.
- He had only one desire for his last meal: prime rib.
- He had only one desire for his last meal—prime rib.
To create an em dash in MS Word or processors that follow the same procedures, type the word before, two hyphens, and the word after.
As soon as a space appears after the word after, the two hyphens will meld together into one em dash.
Procedure:
- Step 1: Type a word.
- something
- Step 2: Type two hyphens one after the other.
- something–
- Step 3: Type the next word.
- something–who
- Step 4: Now type the space and keep typing.
- something—who knows what
- Unfortunately, WordPress does not follow MS Word, so create an em dash in Word, copy it, and paste it into your blog.
The em dash, when adding non-essential information, implies more emphasis, perhaps because it is not used as often. While these may seem to be interchangeable, care should be given in the use of dashes. Do not overuse. Consistency is important.
Examples:
- That horse—the one I bought yesterday—just broke my arm.
- That horse (the one I bought yesterday) just broke my arm.
- That horse, the one I bought yesterday, just broke my arm.
- (The sentence implies the person pointing to the horse and adding information about it, not defining it.)
- The butcher, one of the three men in the tub, went out to sea.
- The butcher—one of the three men in the tub—went out to sea.
- The butcher (one of the three men in the tub) went out to sea.
- (“one of the three men in the tub” adds to the information about the butcher; the phrase does not define him.)
- Angus cows, all of which are black, are hard to tell apart.
- Angus cows—all of which are black—are hard to tell apart.
- Angus cows (all of which are black) are hard to tell apart.
- (“all of which are black” describes Angus cows without defining them.)
For a minor break in continuity, a comma may precede and follow the phrase.
Examples:
- Three men in a tub, namely, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, all went out to sea.
- Comma before and after “namely”)
- Three of the blind mice, for instance, Max, Mark, and Marilyn, followed in a mixing bowl.
- (Comma before and after “for instance”)
For a greater break, the phrase should be preceded by a dash or a semicolon or enclosed in a pair of parentheses.
Examples:
- Punctuation marks that introduce a list—that is, a colon, a dash, or an opening parenthesis—are interchangeable, but the writer should be consistent.
- Punctuation marks (i.e., period, comma, question mark) each have a specific use.
Examples:
- The wind blew so hard—can you believe it?—that the log chain flew straight out.
- The wind blew so hard—I didn’t believe it!—that the log chain flew straight out.
- The wind blew so hard—at exactly 3:14 p.m.—that the log chain flew straight out.
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The EN Dash
The en dash does not have a key on a typewriter or a keyboard. The AP Stylebook uses a hyphen instead of the en dash.
The AP Stylebook uses a hyphen, which is easier to create from with a typewriter or a keyboard.
Examples:
- The conference is scheduled for July 8–12.
- (en dash between the two numbers in the date)
- That was the longest assignment I ever didn’t read—pages 52–175.
- (em dash follows “read” to introduce a list, en dash between the page numbers)
Creating an en dash
Whichever keyboard you use, no “en dash” key exists.
MS Word will let you create one.
Mac: press “Option” and the hyphen at the same time.
Windows: not so easy. Click on the “Insert” tab. To the far right, click on “Symbol” and at the bottom of the list, “More Symbols.” Under the “Special Characters” tab, select the second item in the list, “En Dash,” click “Insert,” and “Close.”
Or you can create a shortcut key from the “Special Characters” tab. At the bottom of the box, click on “Shortcut Key…” With the cursor in “Press new shortcut key:” in the middle of the box, press “ctrl” and “shift” and “N.” In the lower left, click on “Assign.” Close. Now whenever you need an en dash, hold “ctrl” and “shift” and type “N.” The dash will appear appropriately without spaces on either side.
Hyphen
–
The hyphen is a busy little character, although not as busy as the comma.
No hyphen connects the words if they are not in front of the noun.
Examples:
- She put up a sign for her missing two-year-old cat.
- A short-term solution may not work well in the long run.
BUT
- She put up a sign for her missing cat who was two years old.
- The solution that worked short term may not work well in the long run.
In case of doubt, check a current dictionary. Some nouns that used to be hyphenated are now put together as a single word.
Examples:
- Cindy often goes to the movie with her sister-in-law.
- (“in-law” relationships are hyphenated to connect them as one relationship.)
- Her great-grandfather found her missing checkbook.
- (“great” relationships are hyphenated to connect them as one relationship.)
- (“check-book” is no longer hyphenated. Instead, the words are connected together.)
Some adverbs (which may look like prepositions) have become attached to verbs in such a way that it is awkward to end a sentence without them.
When these verb phrases are used as nouns, they should be hyphenated (but only when used as nouns).
Examples:
- The gas company feared that the leak in the line would blow up several houses.
- (Verb phrase used as a verb + adverb: “blow up”)
- The gas blow-up destroyed several houses.
- (Verb phrase used as a noun: “blow-up”)
- Five prisoners managed to break out of the prison.
- (Verb phrase used as a verb + adverb: “break out”)
- Five prisoners escaped during the break-out.
- (Verb phrase used as a noun: “break-out”)
- Every time I said something, he would put me down.
- (Verb phrase used as a verb + adverb: “put … down”)
- I’m tired of his constant put-downs.
- (Verb phrase used as a noun: “put-down”)
When two or more hyphenated adjectives refer to the same noun, the noun follows only the last adjective. Each of the adjectives keeps its connecting hyphen.
Examples:
- Sixteen- and seventeen-year-old students may only take the GED® examination with special permission.
- One-third- and one-half-pound burgers are too big for me!
Multiples of ten, of course, are single words, so there is no need for a hyphen.
Numbers beginning a sentence should be spelled out.
Commonly, numbers less than twenty (or ten, depending on your source) are spelled out, whereas larger numbers are written in numbers. As with other problems, be consistent. (Don’t start sentences with numbers if you are using numerals.)
Examples:
- One hundred twenty-two years and counting, her grandmother was the oldest living person, but that was yesterday, before she died.
- He wrote out the check for seventy-four dollars even. He forgot the eighty-five cents.
- He wrote out the check for $74 even. He forgot the 85¢.
- (“¢” is a special character in most word processors.)
Examples:
- He missed cutting the board to the right length by three-fourths of an inch.
- Which wrench do you need, the five-eighths or the eleven-sixteenths?
- He could only eat a half of the hamburger.
The Chicago style uses an en dash, which is harder to create on a computer (impossible on a typewriter).
Examples:
- Regular working hours are 8-5 Monday-Friday.
- They must have spent 1,000-1,500 euros on their vacation.
A prefix is a letter or letters inserted at the beginning of a word to change the meaning of the root word, such as, “a,” “un-” (unreliable), “re-” (repay), “sub-” (submarine), “post-” (postscript).
A hyphen connects a prefix to a proper noun, to an adjective that is capitalized, or to a date.
Examples:
- Pre-Christmas sales begin now in October!
- They only sold post-1990 books.
- The Pan-American Highway runs from Alaska to Argentina.
- We often go camping in mid-September for my birthday.
- Her favorite history of the United States was pre-1776.
- My post-2000 grandchildren do not know how to “dial” a telephone.
Examples:
- pre-emergence pesticide
- semi-invalid
- re-educate
- anti-inflammatory
Common exceptions are “cooperate” and “coordinate.”
Some words have been used with prefixes in a different manner.
Examples:
- “creation” with the prefix “re” looks suspiciously like “recreation” (something done for pleasure).
- The park offered several forms of recreation: skating, swimming, even horse-back riding.
- (“recreation” = activities done for fun)
- The re-creation of the flood-damaged museum cost over a million dollars.
- (“re-creation” = rebuilding, creating it again)
- The park offered several forms of recreation: skating, swimming, even horse-back riding.
- “cover” with the prefix “re” could be mistaken for “recover” (to retrieve, get something back, or to get better, healthier)
- She called the police to recover her stolen lawn mower.
- (“recover” = to get something back)
- To recover from the crash, she spent three days in the hospital.
- (“recover” = to get better, healthier)
- The couch was tattered and torn, so she bought new material to re-cover it.
- (“re-cover” = to put a new cover on it)
- She called the police to recover her stolen lawn mower.
When a word at the end of a line is too long, a hyphen often divides it between syllables so that one part of the word stays on the original line and the other part goes to the next line.
Always split the word between syllables. This may require the use of a dictionary.
Your spell checker may count both parts of the word as misspelled.
Examples of syllables:
- supervisor (su-per-vi-sor)
- processor (pro-ces-sor)
- (break words between double consonants)
- establishment (es-tab-lish-ment)
- interactive (in-ter-ac-tive)
Examples in sentences:
The child did not like caterpillars until she found out they became butter-
flies. Then she thought they were beautiful.
Benjamin stared at the words in his new reader. They were incom-
prehensible to the fourth-grader.
These sentences may not split in the same place on your device. Pretend each example is only two lines, the first one ending with “butter-” and the second ending at “incom-.”
Credit: Photo by John Barkiple on Unsplash