Dashes: The Three Kinds and When To Use Each One

If you don’t know a lot about dashes, this is gonna rock your world. Really. Everything is about to change for you. Because our friend the dash is not alone. There are actually not one, not two, but THREE kinds of dashes in our wonderful English world!

I think that in every academic paper I’ve edited, I’ve had to change the dashes. It’s just because a lot of people don’t know that there are different options available to them. We learned how to use a hyphen, but we never knew that it has help! Thank goodness too, because there are so many possible uses for a dash that having just one would make it severely overworked and probably very stressed.

So what are our options you might ask? Here you go:

The Hyphen

Here’s the classic we all know and love. The hyphen looks like this: “-” and is used to make compound words like editor-in-chief and merry-go-round and combine compound adjectives as in dog-friendly hotel and sun-dried tomatoes.

Don’t use a hyphen to combine an adverb and an adjective. If the first word has an -ly, meaning it’s an adverb, don’t use a hyphen. The happily-married couple is wrong; The happily married couple is correct. This is because that -ly suffix already indicates the adverb is going to be modifying the coming adjective (The couple is married. How are they married? They’re married happily.), so we don’t need a dash to further illustrate the connection between those words.

The En Dash

The en dash is called that because it’s as wide as the letter “n” on your computer screen. It’s a little longer than the hyphen and you can create one on a Mac by typing ­option+hyphen on your computer: “–”. On a PC, you can type control + minus sign if you have a numeric keypad or use the symbols menu if you don’t.

Think of an en dash being like the words “through” or “to.” The most common use for it is number ranges, like Please read pages 15–25 or The party is tomorrow, 12:00–2:00. I remember this by thinking of the “en” in “en dash” as meaning “number,” even though that’s not why it’s called that. It’s just a helpful memory tool! The en dash can also be used where we’d say “to” between places, like The Atlanta–London flight is very long.

Don’t use an en dash if there’s a word pair. For example, She was at the party from 12:00–1:30 is incorrect because “from” needs its partner “to.” She was at the party from 12:00 to 1:30. The same is true with I’ll be there between 11:00–12:00 because “between” needs its partner “and.” I’ll be there between 11:00 and 12:00.

These word pairs (“from” and “to” along with “between” and “and”) are pretty much the only ones you need to worry about. So just remember if you see “from” or “between,” you need to be looking for their word pair buddies!

The Em Dash

If an en dash is as wide as an “n,” guess how wide an em dash is. You got it! “m”! Here it is: “—.” For my mac users, it’s option+shift+hyphen on the keyboard. On a PC with a number keypad, type control + alt + minus sign; if you don’t have a number keypad, use the symbols menu.

Just like parentheses, em dashes can be used in pairs—like this—to set off a side note (called parenthetical information) in text. The cool thing about it, though, is that you can also use just one to achieve the same kind of effect. Em dashes give a transition a sudden, somewhat jerky feel—so use them sparingly if you want them to be effective.

Another use for an em dash is to show an interruption or sudden stop in dialogue. “Please don’t interru—”

If you want to make your editor very happy, don’t put spaces around your em dashes! The (incorrect) spaces — like these ones — are some of the first things I delete when I edit a text.

That’s all for dashes! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message!