An en dash is the shorter dash–this is the one Microsoft word will often autoformat for you when you place a dash between two words without a space. The smaller en dash is the default symbol for most of us. An em dash is the longer dash—this guy can be created a few ways, you...
The rules of when and where to use which kind of dash may seem complex and hard to understand, but they don't have to. Here's your guide to how to use em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens correctly.
The en dash (–) is used to mark ranges. For example: The office is open Monday–Friday. It's also used in a few other niche instances, like hyphenating a two-word adjective (e.g., a San Francisco–based restaurant). Considering there are significant differences between an em and en...
I could hear my English professor’s mantra in my mind—poignancy over word count. Em dashes can replace commas when the commas are used to offset thoughts or interject extra information. That makes em dash rules easy to remember—remember EM for “emphasize.” Here’s an example: When ...
The em dash is longer and generally used to note a break, provide drama, or give an example. Writers use the en dash like this: “To pass the class, Sally needs to score between 80%–90% on the exam.” In contrast, writers use the em dash like this: “Alex needs to pass ...
numbers. These numbers can be for anything that’s being measured. It could be weight, speed, time, age, quantity, etc. Most people simply substitute the word “to” or “through” when reading a text with the en-dash in place. Let’s look at a few examples to drive the point home...
you may have experienced that the comment features in Word have changed. Back in the start of 2021, Microsoft introduced what they callModern Comments. Modern Comments work quite differently than comments in Word have been working for years. Microsoft now refers to the old comments asClassic Comm...
However, we often use it where other, long dash symbols would work better — often because we're not sure how to type long hyphens at all. Sometimes, you can see people typing double (- -) or even triple (- - -) dashes to represent en and em dashes respectively (and some word ...
One of the primary functions of the en dash is to denote ranges between numbers, dates, or times. Example: “The conference will take place on October 10 – 12, 2023.” 2. Replacing the word “versus” Use an en dash to succinctly highlight the contrasts between different variables, grou...
because they add a bunch of nonsense code to my writing. But outside programs with their own shortcut, I never got around to learning how to write em or en dashes. This means the text editors and browsers I now do my writing in are dashless wastelands.There are online tools for creati...