How To Use Dashes Correctly

Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end.

How to use dashes correctly. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. It is also used for words like two thirds. So what s the difference. When used as parentheses dashes are alternatives to brackets or commas. En dashes are also used to connect a prefix with an open compound.

Create an em dash by typing two hyphens without spaces between the hyphens and no spaces before or after the hyphens. The em dash is the largest of the three kinds of dashes. Em dashes are not generally used in formal documents. Em dashes are the width of you guessed it a capital m. An em dash is used to indicate a break in a sentence or question.

Firstly looking at the hyphen the default dash. What s the difference between a hyphen and a dash. A word may be too long and run onto the next line so a hyphen is used to link the two parts together. In the microsoft office suite of applications and many others as well you can create an en dash by pressing ctrl on the number pad. It is used in the same manner as a parenthetical expression.

The en dash is used between dates and times and the 3 em dash is used to signal omitted information in certain often legal situations. The reason for using an en dash with such compounds is to send a subtle signal to the reader that the prefix belongs to the entire compound not just the first word of it. Here s a hyphen and here s a dash most of us don t normally type out a dash. After eighty years of dreaming the elderly man realized it was time to finally revisit the land of his youth ireland. To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use.

Dashes can be used for emphasis in several ways. Generally speaking the dash does not have a unique role. But if you learn how to type dashes correctly it will add a more professional feel to anything you write. A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for.