The dash — is used to set off additional material within a sentence, often in order to emphasize it, to set off appositives that contain commas, or to indicate missing words. Sometimes confused with the hyphen, a dash comes between words as a form of division, whereas a hyphen generally joins words or parts of words to indicate a connection.
When typing, use two hyphens together without spaces to form a dash. Do not put a space before or after the dash. Some word-processing programs have a mark called an em-dash longer than a hyphen , which can be used with no space before or after it. The word-processing program may form this automatically when two hyphens are typed together.
Use a dash to set off an interruption that is closely relevant to the sentence but not grammatically part of it, such as a list, illustration, restatement, summary, shift in thought or tone, or dramatic point.
Only one person wears that perfume—my mother. Three of the people in my class—Tom, Dick, and Harry—refused to join the demonstration. His feelings for Gwendolyn—he is madly in love with her—will never change. Use a dash to set off appositives that contain commas. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that immediately follows and renames a noun or pronoun and is usually surrounded by commas.
Learning the mechanics—the complex, detailed structural components—of the English language is very difficult because the rules are often so inconsistent. Use a dash to indicate an abruptly unfinished thought or remark. Do not include a period or comma after the dash.
Spacing and Breaks. Paragraph Breaks White Spaces and Spacing. Table of Contents Expand. The En Dash. The Em Dash. Thoughts on the Dash. Richard Nordquist. English and Rhetoric Professor. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.
Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Nordquist, Richard. How to Use a Dash. How to Create and Use Dashes and Hyphens. How to Build Sentences with Appositives. Don't Confuse the Hyphen With the Dash. Editing and Proofreading Marks in Composition. Definition and Examples of Periods: Full Stop. Guidelines for Using Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.
These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Most often, compound modifiers are made up of an adjective plus a noun or participle. But, remember, a compound modifier only needs a hyphen when it comes before a noun.
If it comes after the noun, leave the hyphen out. The -ly is sufficient to show that the compound is a unit of meaning. Take a five- or ten-minute break. Hyphens are also commonly used to divide words that fall at the end of a line of text and continue on the next line. En dashes, which are about the width of an upper-case N, are often mistaken for hyphens.
But, traditionally, en dashes function as a kind of super hyphen. But, keep in mind, not all readers will notice en dashes or understand what they mean. But, outside of formal printed publications, this type of en dash is commonly replaced with a simple hyphen. The em dash about as wide as an uppercase M , is a relatively artistic punctuation mark, compared to the more technical hyphen and en dash.
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