How To Use Hyphens And Dashes
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When should you use a hyphen.
How to use hyphens and dashes. Dashes separate information and are a type of parenthesis like brackets. A hyphen is a punctuation mark that s used to join words or parts of words. Keyboard shortcuts for hyphens and dashes as you can see in the symbol dialog you can type hyphens and dashes using keyboard shortcuts. Let us see how to use these hyphens and dashes when typing documents in word. Hyphens are not the same as dashes.
Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. To insert an en dash. It s also important to distinguish between dashes and hyphens. Use a hyphen in a compound modifier when the modifier comes before the word it s modifying. Hyphens are shorter than dashes and link two words so the word or phrase makes sense.
In formal writing you should use the bracket rather than the dash as a dash is considered less formal. For mac press option hyphen key. Hyphens generally hyphens are used to join two words or parts of words together while avoiding confusion or a hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements. Hyphens are shorter lines. It s not interchangeable with other types of dashes.
Like the hyphen there should never be a space between the en dash and its adjacent content. Dashes can be used to add parenthetical statements or comments in much the same way as you would use brackets. It s longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. A hyphen is also used to separate syllables of a word when there is a line break though this was more prevalent when type was set by hand rather than electronically. Hyphen en dash or em dash a hyphen is used to connect two words that function as a particular concept or when linked together form a particular modifier.
For pc laptop since you don t have a numeric pad you ll have to use the special symbols menu of your word processor. These are known as compound words. When typing em dashes always put a space before and after the dash. They are most often used to show connections between words that are working as a unit for example you might see adjectives like well intentioned or to spell certain words like e mail. For pc type ctrl minus.