What’s wrong with en dashes?
How to use en dashes and hyphens
Would you know an en dash if you saw one?
Can you tell the difference between a hyphen and an en dash?
And what on earth are em dashes?
Why wouldn’t you use an en dash?
In this post, I've written a short guide to explain the functions of hyphens and en (and em) dashes. I don’t go into too much detail on hyphens here – that’s such a big topic! Perhaps one for another day.
My main focus is on comparison and practical use, so that you can feel more confident about applying these punctuation devices.
How to use a dash correctly
How to write an en dash on a keyboard
A hyphen is easy to find and type on your keyboard by typing the lower of the two lines shown here:
But the en dash is a specific keystroke on the keyboard. It looks like this – and it’s twice as long as a hyphen.
How do you type it? I use the number pad on my keyboard to write an en dash: Ctrl and the minus key here:
Another tip: your word processor may simply autocorrect two hyphens written together to an en dash. Try it and see, by typing two hyphens (--), then the enter button.
You may have noticed that I haven’t yet answered my third question: ‘what on earth are em dashes?’ The short answer to that question is that, in the US, they are the same as en dashes. More on that below.
What is the difference between a hyphen and a dash?
As you’ll see in this post, hyphens and en (or em) dashes have distinct functions, and are therefore not interchangeable. To ensure their content is clear and unambiguous, writers need to be careful not to mix them up.
An important note about accessibility: I read recently that screen readers do not read out dashes, so you will want to consider that if you know your document will be read using a screen reader.
What is the purpose of a hyphen?
In How Words Get Good, Rebecca Lee refers to grammar and punctuation as ‘the rhythm section’, and says, ‘hyphens may be small, but they are mighty’.
Hyphens can be a matter of house style, or simply author preference. Preferences and styles can vary a lot, but there are some key rules to be aware of.
Three uses for a hyphen:
1. For compound words. For example, ‘T-shirt, U-turn, self-respect’.
Did you know that the word ‘website’ used to be hyphenated to ‘web-site’? That’s an example of the declining use of hyphens in modern writing. If in doubt, think about who the reader is – does having more hyphens make the text harder to read, or cluttered?
2. To form a noun from a phrasal verb.
3. To form a word with a prefix (this is not consistent, though, if you look at the dictionary entries, so be sure to check!)
4. To form certain compound adjectives.
5. Typesetting – to avoid a word splitting across lines.
But in most cases, the function of a hyphen is clarity – to show that a collection of words needs to be read together, e.g. ‘ready-to-wear’ vs ‘ready to wear’.
Compare ‘Sixty-odd professors’ with ‘sixty odd professors’.
And in ‘short-range missile’, the hyphen tells us that the range is short, not the missile.
Do’s and don’ts with hyphens:
Don’t join an adverb to a verb if the modifying adverb ends in ’-ly’. It doesn’t make the sentence clearer, as it’s already clear what the adverb ‘thickly’ modifies in ‘thickly spread jam’, for example.
Do keep your readers in mind when considering whether to use a hyphen. Accessibility and readability are always your priority.
What is the purpose of an en dash?
En dashes are used often in printed publications, less so in online spaces, text messages and emails. Probably for the simple reason that it’s hard to type them on mobile phones and tablets.
Specific uses for an en dash:
In place of a bracket. You can use your en dashes like parentheses (round brackets like these) to organise ideas within a sentence.
The Penguin Dictionary of Language describes an en dash as ‘a punctuation mark which typically signals an included unit’. For example, ‘Jason is a lawyer – a skilled lawyer with 20 years of experience’, or ‘Nikita – at least, as far as I can remember – never married or had children’.
You could also use a pair of commas here and achieve the same result, but I’d argue that dashes provide greater emphasis.
To indicate the start of an aside, explanation or addition. In the Oxford Guide to Plain English, Martin Cutts uses the following example: ‘Justifying their case, smokers introduce a herring so red that it glows like coal: that if their illnesses are self-inflicted, well, so are most people’s – look at traffic accidents, look at potholers.’
For emphasis. For example, ‘The translation was flawless – not a single error in over 10,000 words’.
In a post on Spry Literary Journal, writer Alice Lowe writes, ’A dash is a visual accent, a welcome interruption — it’s a long boldly-colored scarf on a plain black tunic, plum lipstick on a pale face. But it also can convey subtlety’.
Lowe goes on to cite a poem by Emily Dickinson: ‘her dashes add visual pizzazz to the page; they make you stop and think about the phrase they contain. Now read it aloud—the poignant pause, the sharp intake of breath—you can hear those dashes.’
(You’ll probably notice that these quotes use em dashes, not en dashes – the writer was writing in US English.)
4. For ranges and sequences, instead of a hyphen. According to the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation, an en dash is used to show sequences, with no spaces, e.g. 1999-2000 or pp. 23-36. Did you also notice the en dash in this book’s title?
Can you just use a hyphen instead of an en dash?
No, not usually. But in practice it depends on the context (ah, of course).
You can also use an en dash INSTEAD of a hyphen when the first word isn’t describing the second word, e.g. in cost-benefit analysis – the full expression would be cost and benefit analysis.
Also see: French-German border, and September-October, where the dash expresses connection between the two words, roughly meaning ‘to’ or ‘and’.
❗ There is one subtle but important difference. Compare ‘the Lloyd – Jones theory’ (two people) with ‘the Lloyd-Jones theory’ (one person).
These examples are mostly taken from page 86 of New Hart’s Rules (2014).
Test your knowledge: can you tell the difference between these compound words?
‘Greek – American negotiations’ (en rule)
‘His Greek-American wife’ (hyphen)
In the first, the negotiations are between two nations. In the second, ‘Greek-American’ is a compound adjective expressing that his wife is American by birth but Greek by descent.
Dos and don’ts with en dashes
Do add a space either side of the en dash if you are writing in British English.
Don’t forget the second dash! If you’re using an en dash like round brackets, remember that both come in pairs! Don’t forget the second closing one!
Don’t combine an en dash with a comma – yuck!
Definitely don’t add a colon before a dash (:-) to introduce a list. I’m not sure where this punctuation quirk came from, but it’s not a thing.
Do be careful! In sequences, you need to avoid mixing en dashes with ‘from’ and ‘to’. For example, I often see people write ‘from 19 December-6 January’.
Similarly, don’t use an en rule plus the word ‘from’ or ‘between’, e.g. ‘visiting times are between 8-10am’.
Don’t get carried away. You can use a pair of dashes in a sentence more than once, but be careful not to overdo it or your reader will start to lose track of what you’re trying to say.
What is the purpose of an em dash?
An em dash is even longer than an en dash – twice the length, in fact. It is always closed up with the words either side of it, whereas the (UK English) en dash is spaced.
This longer version is mostly used in US English house styles, but there can be exceptions! Note that OUP style uses parenthetical em dashes in exactly the same way as en dashes, even though they are a UK publishing house.
In UK and US English, a spaced or closed up em dash can also indicate sudden interruptions in dialogue, or words omitted (e.g. cuss words).
Are en (or em) dashes bad punctuation?
I’m often asked whether it’s good punctuation to use en dashes at all in formal writing. To which I answer a resounding YES.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with en dashes and they are not bad punctuation! Personally, I find them incredibly useful.
Most people agree, but not everyone. The Times newspaper’s style guide states: ‘Dashes are sloppy punctuation, ugly in narrow columns of newspaper type. They often indicate that a sentence is badly constructed and needs rewriting’. Ouch.
In The Conscious Style Guide, Karen Yin argues, ‘For me, using language consciously means stretching the commas in my thought process into em dashes to gather clarity and purpose’.
An important thing to remember when writing is to avoid letting your sentences become too formulaic or clunky. Variation keeps readers interested, and that means using punctuation for impact. I often find that an en dash offers a slightly longer pause than a comma. So go ahead and switch around your brackets for dashes, or even commas, or try adding dramatic emphasis or flourish with an en dash.
The final dash
I expect that some people’s objections to en (or em) dashes stem from seeing them overused. It’s less common in academic writing to see a page full of dashes, while in some marketing copy too many dashes can make the piece feel overdone and confusing. In the words of Fowler’s Modern English Usage (first published in 1926), ‘To see a printed page with too many dashes skateboarding across it is akin to looking at a beautiful face disfigured by acne’. I wouldn’t describe it that way myself, but you get their point.
In conclusion, when it comes to en dashes, I’m a fan. I wouldn’t go around using multiple pairs of them within the same paragraph – it’s important to remember that your reader needs to be able to follow the message you’re trying to convey. However, far from being ‘sloppy punctuation’, they are there to add clarity when used thoughtfully and consistently. So it’s fine (better than fine) to use them to vary punctuation in your writing, and to add emphasis or a pause. But always remember to check the style guide!
If you need help with getting your message across in English with impact and polish, schedule a chat with me.
