8/18/2023 0 Comments Hyphen en dash em dash![]() I also use capitalization and punctuation when I type while many people do not. No one, pedants included, have ever tried to correct me on it. When typing on a web form, I'll usually use "-" because it's visually similar and much easier to type on a US keyboard. When writing documents or HTML I use them because it adds clarity. Then don't use them? As a reader, I certainly appreciate when people do. Otherwise we'd be taking about half and quarter em dashes and the likes. That's the barebones set of dashes that are relevant for a balanced typographical appearance, not made up pedantic complexity to annoy people. And at last, either of them won't preserve optical balance when displaying a numerical range, as numbers are wider than a hyphen, but narrower than an em space, which would result in either insufficient visual separation compared to spaces following said numbers, or too much of an optical gap within an entity that belongs together. In reverse, a shorter dash when switching context - or interjecting another idea within a sentence - doesn't slow the pace of the text flow enough, and your brain will read/intonate it the same way as when linking words. A longer dash to link words that belong together is visually perceived as an interruption and doesn't feel like those two words are one The primary importance of using the correct dashes is that it preserves a good flow for reading and is paramount to micro-typographic balance: The fact that using different dashes does encode meaning in a subtle sense does have relevance for semantics - but that's, imho, almost secondary to this argument, as it's not as grammatically relevant as commas and. I’ll stop us here, but if you’re interested in learning more about the wonderful world of dashes, I highly recommend checking out Chapter 6 in the Chicago Manual of Style."why are we even kerning fonts, who cares if there's a few gaps when i write »irl«." ![]() Em dashes can also serve as bullet points in any type of list. It also can stand in for something that is missing or left out, such as in a bibliography instead of repeating an author’s name over and over, for example, three em dashes can stand in for it, with the rest of the bibliographic information coming afterwards. First off, it serves as a way to insert a separate thought or phrase into a sentence-like this. ![]() (An open compound is made when an adjective and noun are combined to make a whole new noun, such as dining room, ice cream, full moon, etc.) So in the case of a phrase like “a living room–sized rug” or “a Brette Warshaw–style outfit,” you’d use an en-dash, since it’s doing the extra work of carrying an additional word along for the ride.įinally, an em dash has many jobs. An en dash is also used when a joint modifier-like the “fine dining” in “fine-dining restaurant”-contains an open compound or a many-worded proper noun. For example: it’d be a April–June issue of a magazine, or pages 50–55, or 5–6 tablespoons. The hyphen-the shortest of the bunch-connects what the Chicago Manual of Style describes as “two things that are intimately related, usually words that function together as a single concept or work together as a joint modifier.” Some examples include phrases like: one-third, father-in-law, and fine-dining restaurant.Įn dashes connect things that denote any sort of range, whether that’s in the form of distance, time, or amounts. Generally, their lengths are indicative of how much “work” they have to do-in other words, the types of things that they’re joining together. Today, we’re tackling one of the more delightful intricacies of the grammatical universe: the world of dashes.ĭashes come in three lengths: hyphens (-), en dashes (–), and em dashes (-). ![]()
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