Oh, those dashes you see in writing. What are they? What are they for? Why should you use them? When should you use them? Let’s take a look.
Hyphen: This is the shortest dash (-); it’s half the width of an en dash (see below). It’s used to link words together to make them mean something different than the separate words do.
Bristlecone pines are the longest living trees in the world.
Bristlecone pines are the longest-living trees in the world.
The first sentence says bristlecone pines are the longest trees that live in the world. “Longest” is the adjective. (Which, by the way, is not true if you look at length as height.)
The second sentence says bristlecone pines live the longest. “Longest-living” is the adjective. (This is true.)
The hyphen is also used to separate numbers that aren’t inclusive, like telephone numbers and social security numbers.
1-800-555-5555
987-99-1234
Note there are no spaces on either side of the hyphen.
En Dash: The length of an en dash (–) is intermediate between the hyphen and em dash; it’s the width of the letter “n.” The en dash is used to separate inclusive numbers.
Please read pages 33–67 and 75–78.
It can also be used to separate the name of a university and the location of a particular campus.
University of California–Davis
Like the hyphen, there are no spaces on either side of the en dash.
Em Dash: An em dash is the width of the letter “m” (—). It’s not like the semi-colon used for linking two related thoughts; it’s more of a sudden break or interruption, sort of a “wait a second,” or “hang on.” It can be used singly or in pairs.
It was his third Olympics—his third try for the elusive gold medal.
The ski jump competition—which had been postponed three times due to bad weather—finally took place.
Note that—like the hyphen and en dash—there are no spaces before or after the em dash.
All that remains now is to be able to type them.
For Mac users
Hyphen: press the key to the right of zero (I’ll call this the dash key) (-)
En dash: press the option and the dash key at the same time (–)
Em dash: press shift, option, and the dash key at the same time (—)
For PC users
Hyphen: press the key to the right of zero (I’ll call this the dash key) (-)
En dash: press ctrl and the dash key at the same time (–)
Em dash: press ctrl, alt, and the dash key at the same time (—)
Brilliant! I know you’ve told me numerous times, but seeing it in print is the way I learn. And just as I was thinking that as useful as this was, I needed to know where these things were on my keyboard, there the information appeared! Thanks, Jan!