Note that not all keyboards around the world are the same. (The symbol above the hyphen is an underline, not a dash.) Before word processing, we had to make an em dash by typing two hyphens. Typing the En Dash and Em Dash on PCs and MacsĬomputer keyboards lack individual keys for either of the dashes. By definition, a hanging hyphen will have a space after it but not before it. The other exception is with a hanging hyphen (see, for example, the word “nineteenth” in the phrase “nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature”). One exception is, of course, when the hyphen is used as a minus sign. The Associated Press style (always the outlier) insists on spacing both before and after the em dash. When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, most-but not all-style books advocate putting space neither before nor after them. Important: Spacing with Hyphens and Dashes Many people were not even aware of the distinction between the en dash and the em dash until the advent of word processors, when software programs enabled us to use marks of punctuation that once had been available only to professional printers. The en dash means, quite simply, “through.” We use it most commonly to indicate inclusive dates and numbers: July 9–August 17 pp. In fact, an em is a typographical unit of measurement.) (A common myth holds that the en dash is, in fact, the width of a typesetter’s letter “N,” whereas the em dash is the width of the letter “M”-thus their names. The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen but not as long as the em dash. Typically the writer is telling the reader that the information being set off by em dashes is important. Em dashes draw attention to the information they enclose or set apart. Parentheses tend to downplay an idea they suggest that the information in them is helpful but not necessary. If a comma (or a pair of them) works, use it. Em Dashes, Parentheses, or Commas?Ī good rule of thumb is to reserve em dashes for those places where the comma simply doesn’t provide a strong enough break. If we had used a hyphen in place of each dash two sentences ago, it would seem as though we had hyphenated two pairs of words in the sentence: “tablets-all” and “course-for,” neither of which makes any sense. If we confuse the em dash with the hyphen, we make a sentence virtually impossible to read. We bought markers, paper, pens, and tablets-all of which were on sale, of course-for our clients to use in the courtroom.We can use these dashes in pairs, as we would use parentheses-that is, to enclose a word, or a phrase, or a clause (as we’ve done here)-or they can be used alone to detach one end of a sentence from its main body.ĭashes are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex or in one that contains a number of commas, as in this example: We use the em dash to create a strong break in the structure of a sentence. It is significantly longer than the hyphen. When we hear the term dash, most of us picture the em dash. Here, however, our focus is on the two kinds of dashes. Elsewhere on this site, we discuss the use of hyphens to create compound words and hyphenated adjectives. On computer keyboards, the hyphen appears on the bottom half of the key located on the top row between the “0” and the equals mark (=).Ĭorrect hyphenation is often a complicated issue.
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