![]() Here’s an example:Īnother time to skip the hyphen is if the modifier consists of an adjective and an adverb. This only works if the noun comes after the words acting as an adjective.īe aware of where the noun is placed so you know if the words need a hyphen. Essentially, two words are brought together to act as a single adjective. Here are the different times you’ll need to use a hyphen and examples of each.Ĭonnecting two words with a hyphen can be done with compound modifiers. There are multiple scenarios in English grammar where hyphens are necessary. Pro tip: Want to tell the em dash and en dash apart by sight? An em dash is about the same width as the letter M, and the en dash is just about the same width as the letter N. Included with words or numbers, an en dash looks like: 2008–2012Īnd as part of a sentence, here’s what an en dash looks like: She was enrolled in the 2008–2012 class. But em dashes and en dashes look a bit different.Īn em dash used in action looks like this: colors - red.Īnd here’s an em dash as part of a sentence: His room is painted two colors - red and white.Īn en dash is a bit shorter and looks a little different in use. What does a dash look like?Īs mentioned above, a dash is a bit longer than a hyphen. Here’s what a hyphen looks like with actual words: one-fourthĪnd used in a sentence: Use the one-fourth cup to measure the flour. What does a hyphen look like?Ī hyphen is a straight line of punctuation that looks just like this: (-) If you see a long, straight line breaking up words in a sentence, then it’s likely a dash and not a hyphen. This is true for both em dashes and en dashes. Which is longer - a hyphen or a dash?Ī dash is longer than a hyphen. A hyphen is its own thing and shouldn’t be interchanged with other dashes. Hyphens: A hyphen is a punctuation mark that’s most commonly used to join compound nouns or a compound noun and a gerund into a single word - for example, dog-friendly restaurants or speedy check-ins. We’ll go into detail about these two later in this guide. There are two types of dashes: the em dash and the en dash. They essentially stand for a pause or a range. Here’s what the two punctuation marks boil down to:ĭashes: A dash is used to separate words or groups of words. And you’ll need to know how to tell them apart. Hyphens and dashes may look similar, but they serve different purposes. What’s the difference between dashes and hyphens? In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about hyphens and dashes, including examples of each. However, their subtle differences can completely change the meaning of a sentence.įor instance, do you know which one was used in the first sentence of this article? It’s an em dash. After the introduction of the Linotype typesetters frequently reached rates of at least 6,000 ens per hour.Hyphens and dashes - they look a lot alike. Many workers fell short of this figure, while skilled workers were known to set 2,000–3,000 ens per hour, and late-1900s typesetting competitions often saw participants reach a corrected rate of 4,000 ens per hour. In the United Kingdom, a commonly cited "standard" rate was 1,000 ens per hour, although actual compositors' output varied widely. īeginning in the late 18th century, compositors were frequently paid by the en, rather than by the page. ![]() Some sources claim the term "en" was derived from the letter "n", which is roughly half the width of the letter "m." This etymology, however, is disputed. This is standard practice in the German language, where the hyphen is the only dash without spaces on either side ( line breaks are not spaces per se). When using it to replace a long dash, spaces are needed either side of it – like so. The en-dash is also increasingly used to replace the long dash ("-", also called an em dash or em rule). In English, the en dash is commonly used for inclusive ranges (e.g., "pages 12–17" or "Aug– November 26, 2005"), to connect prefixes to open compounds (e.g., "pre–World War II"). The en dash (–) and en space ( ) are each one en wide. The en is sometimes referred to as the "nut", to avoid confusion with the similar-sounding "em". By definition, it is equivalent to half of the body height of the typeface (e.g., in 16- point type it is 8 points). En is half of an emĪn en (from English en quadrat) is a typographic unit, half of the width of an em. Unit of measurement in the field of typography.
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