How To Use Dashes Correctly

To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use.

How to use dashes correctly. Create an em dash by typing two hyphens without spaces between the hyphens and no spaces before or after the hyphens. A single dash can emphasize material at the beginning or end of a sentence. What s the difference between a hyphen and a dash. Here s a hyphen and here s a dash most of us don t normally type out a dash. Definitely check what the house style or the preferred style guide has to say about en dashes.

Em dashes are not generally used in formal documents. Generally speaking the dash does not have a unique role. 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. 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.

When used to extend a sentence a dash can replace a semicolon a colon or three dots used as a pause for effect. Firstly looking at the hyphen the default dash. When used as parentheses dashes are alternatives to brackets or commas. Dashes can be used for emphasis in several ways. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end.

Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. But if you learn how to type dashes correctly it will add a more professional feel to anything you write. In practice many people use hyphens where they need to use dashes. After eighty years of dreaming the elderly man realized it was time to finally revisit the land of his youth ireland. It is usually used as an alternative to another type of punctuation.

Em dashes are the width of you guessed it a capital m. It s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. 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. A hyphen is used for linking words and parts of words together. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does.