How To Use Dashes Properly

Alternatively you can use alt with numeric keys 0150.

How to use dashes properly. 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. Although many people call the hyphen a dash dash refers to another group of horizontal lines in text. The en dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash and almost exclusively used to indicate ranges of things. Dashes add drama parentheses whisper. The em dash the en dash and the 3 em dash.

Most often these are ranges of numbers or dates and are used. When a range with en dash falls at the end of a sentence word will split the number after the en dash to next line. When the dash is used in this way it creates a compound adjective. A word may be too long and run onto the next line so a hyphen is used to link the two parts together. In order to use this dash sign you have to press control and key in the numeric keypad.

Using dashes correctly isn t just an old school technique. If the sentence appears disjointed or does not make sense you may need to revise it instead of using the dashes. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash. Where parentheses indicate that the reader should put less emphasis on the enclosed material dashes indicate that the reader should pay more attention to the material between the dashes. This means en dash is visible always with the preceding number.

This handout focuses on how to use dashes correctly. This is a punctuation lesson on using dashes. Using the en dash to denote a connection. Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption. See the following examples.

They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase. Firstly looking at the hyphen the default dash. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. The em dash can be used to replace parentheses colons and commas. Dashes are used to extend a sentence to replace colons semicolons or three dots.