The Hyphen, the En Dash and the Em Dash
Dashing Through the Prose, in a Complicated Sleigh.
July 21, 2017 | Singapore | By Jeng
I’m the writer who keeps forgetting that there’s such a thing known as en dash. It’s like an in-between dash that requires too much effort to recall — kinda like Mario’s brother (the green Mario) and the name of those witches in your good ol’ Disney show.
Wait, why are we discussing this?
- While these dashes are all connectors, it’s good to understand they connect different things.
- It’s a pain-in-the-ass to get them right on both Windows and Mac. So here’s a tutorial no one really wants to know.
But seriously, after writing this — I’m ready to throw my Windows out of the window!
Meet the Dashes
Hyphen (-), en dash (–), and em dash ( — ).
The Overworked Hyphen (-)
A hyphen connects two related words to form a new word/entity — a compound word.
Self-respect
Two-year-old
Passer-by
Mother-in-law
A hyphen also connects two or more words to form a compound modifier (adjective) before a noun.
Hogwarts is a wizard-friendly school.
Here, “wizard” and “friendly” is being combined to form a compound adjective that modifies the noun “school”.This school is wizard friendly.
But when the modifier comes after the noun, there’s no need for a hyphen between “wizard” and “friendly”.
Read more about “closed compound words”, “open compound words” and other hyphenated shenanigans below. But I think you get it.
The Inglorious En Dash (–)
The en dash connects two words related by distance — such as numbers in a range. It’s a common mistake to simply replace an en dash with a hyphen. But lots of writers do that all the same and you’ll soon find out why.
En dash:
Page 1–394
3–10 August
1–2 pm
Type it on a Mac keyboard
- Option + Minus
Type it on a Windows keyboard
- !@#$@#$ it’s SO HARD to get it right outside of a word processor! You’ll have to
(1) Hold down ALT and enter 0150 on a keyboard with a number pad
(2) Give up. Whose laptop has a number pad anyway?
The Very Long Em Dash ( — )
It hijacks the flow of the sentence by introducing a new concept (or create an emphasis)— like this. It can replace a comma, colon and even parentheses!
Em dashes help writers throw a punch by creating a strong break or communicate a switch of perspectives.
Type it on a Mac keyboard
- Shift + Option + Minus
- OR Minus-Minus
Type it on a Windows keyboard
- ALT + 0151 !@#$@#$ give it up. Now.
To Dash, or Not to Dash?
It makes perfect sense to get your dashes right when you’re going full-on digital. But Windows, you’ve failed this city. It’s MacBook for the win.
