The en dash is used inconsistently within lots of writing – regardless of how ‘professional’ the writers are.
The hyphen, em dash and en dash are everywhere, but most of us don’t know when or why to use them – and different writers use the dashes in different ways. Let’s figure this out!
What do they look like?
| – | hyphen |
| – | en dash (or ndash, en-dash or n-dash) |
| — | em dash (or mdash, em-dash or m-dash) |
Do the first two look the same to you? It’s because some devices display them inconsistently, when the characters sit all by themselves. On a phone, the examples above may look wrong. However, they will probably look different in the next example, with some words or numbers adjacent to them.
Let’s look at those dashes with some text:
| twenty-five | hyphen |
| 11–25 |
en-dash |
| Well—yes. |
em-dash |
Let’s make that even more clear.
(This image was made with PowerPoint and Photoshop; the relative sizes of the dashes look right, however, the en dash and em dash don’t exactly match the width of the upper-case N and M – and they rarely do! It also depends on fonts, software and devices.)
When should I use a hyphen, en dash or em dash?
Hyphen
- Indicates breaks within words that wrap at the end of a line
- Connects compounded words like “mass-produced” (Closed compound words like counterintuitive have no hyphen in modern English, except for uncommon combinations that are confusing or ambiguous without a hyphen.)
- Connects grouped numbers, like a phone number 555-860-5086
- The hyphen does not indicate a range of numbers, like a date range, which is the job of an en dash
En dash
- Joins numbers in a range, such as “1993–99” or “1200–1400 B.C.” or “pages 32–37” or open-ended ranges, like “1934–”
- Joins words that describe a range, like “July–October 2010”
- There’s a lot more you can do with the en dash – read more below under “break the rules”.
Em dash
- Works better than commas to set apart a unique idea from the main clause of a sentence:
“Sometimes writing for money—rather than for art or pleasure—is really quite enjoyable.”
- Separates an inserted thought or clause from the main clause, such as:
“I can’t believe how pedantic Ken is about writing—doesn’t he have anything better to do?”
“Hunter strode into the room—was he mad?—and the family stopped and stared.”
“Computers make everyday punctuation—for reasons that we’ll discuss later—more precise yet more confusing.”
- Shows when dialogue has been interrupted:
“I reached in and pulled the spray can out of my backpack—” “In front of the police?”
Extra:
Here’s another obscure, old-fashioned use for the m-dash: When letters are uncertain or missing from a word that yo
