How To Use Dashes With Commas

When used as parentheses dashes are alternatives to brackets or commas.

How to use dashes with commas. Please accept my application for the position advertised in the news and observer. It is usually used as an alternative to another type of punctuation. Joe and his trusty mutt was always welcome. Words and phrases between dashes are not generally part of the subject. When a thought is left unfinished however a dash should be used instead.

Use a dash to cut off dialogue. Parentheses are the quiet whisper of an aside commas are the conversational voice of a friend walking by your desk and dashes are the yowl of a pirate dashing into a fray. When used to extend a sentence a dash can replace a semicolon a colon or three dots used as a pause for effect. For example i never said he began when typing a completed sentence a comma precedes the closing quotation mark and the attribution. Use an en dash when you need to connect terms that are already hyphenated or when you are using a two word phrase as a modifier.

An em dash is made by typing two hyphens. In general you can think of parentheses commas and dashes as a continuum of marks. Use a longer em dash to join independent clauses with words like and but as or and for. Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation such as the commas after iowa and 2013 in the following examples. Remember that the dash is considered more jarring than using commas or parentheses so consider which punctuation achieves the desired effect.

The man from ames iowa arrived. Using a colon between a verb and its object or complement. First the dash can be used where commas or parentheses might be used as an aside or interruption in the middle of a sentence. Generally speaking the dash does not have a unique role. To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use.

When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. A colon can be used immediately after the greeting in a formal letter less formal letters tend to use a comma in this location. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. Using the en dash to denote a connection the en dash may also be used to indicate a connection between two words. You use them to surround something that seems a bit out of place in the sentence an aside a clarification or a commentary.