His editorializations while few are pithy and insightful like the em dash is the most underused punctuation mark in the english language will. Em dashes may be prone to overuse, but if you understand how beautiful the em dash can be, you wont want to overuse it. Typographic print em dash en dash usage grammar poster english teacher gifts for teachers educational posters educational quotes posters art. Grammar and punctuation are hotly contested parts of the english language istock. When to useand not usean emdash grammar, punctuation. See more ideas about grammar and punctuation, punctuation and teaching writing. Figuratively speaking, the hyphen pulled the short end of the stick. Dashes set off loosely related comments and sudden breaks in thought. Its longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Buy the chicago guide to grammar, usage, and punctuation chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing. The designer envisions the games fundamental elements. Find out whether you need spaces on either side of an emdash. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by.
But i tend to believe in what my teachers taught me and that its largely lazy to use the em dash when another kind of punctuation could do the job. I am talking about the emdash, which looks like two hyphens connected into one long line. Em dashes so called because they are at least historically the width of the character m are used for emphasis or interruption. For some writers, the em dash is a vice that their editors occasionally. The chicago manual of style says that periods and commas precede. They can be used on their own or in pairs to offset a word or phrase. The em dash may also be used when there is an interruption in the thought of the same speaker. You are the friend, the only friend, who offered to help me. Dashes, like commas, semicolons, colons, ellipses, and parentheses, indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. A hyphen is also used to separate syllables of a word when there is a line break, though this was more prevalent when type was set by hand rather than electronically.
It can also be used for clarity in forming complex compound adjectives. When interrupting dialogue with action, use a pair of em dashes to set off the action. When people think of punctuation marks, it is usually the handy comma, the imperious colon, or the overly excited exclamation mark that comes to mind. First of all, there are three lengths of what are all more or less dashes. Both terms are acceptable but ill use dash in this article. The chicago guide to grammar, usage, and punctuation. Blog grammar ruleshow to use hyphens and dashes in business writing. For example, em dashes are used when a parenthetical remark contains an internal comma or would otherwise sound awkward if enclosed by commas. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a. Writers love em dashes as much as hunters love swiss army knives. Use em dashes to set off parenthetical information. When a connection between two words in a sentence is to be shown, en dash is applied. Apa style recommends specific uses for hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes.
I know im not supposed to have favorites, the the grammar devotional is my. In this use, em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses, but there are subtle differences. Dont replace the second emdash as some tend to with a comma or semicolon. Thousands of childrenlike the girl in this photographhave been left homeless. How to use hyphen, en dash or em dash correctly grammarist. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. Feb 6, 2012 explore realgrammargirls board grammar girl. Otherwise, confusion rather than clarity is likely to result. To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, ill start by comparing two sentences. There are many uses of the en and em dash and also many ways to form these dashes using your computer.
Em dashes are often used to set off parenthetical information. Dashes are used to extend a sentence to replace colons, semicolons, or three dots. I will try to condense the various bits of information scattered throughout cmos. Interrupting dialogue with action the editors blog. Understand not only how to form em dashes, but also the difference between american and british usage. The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. Terminology dashes are sometimes referred to as rules, especially in the uk. The surefire way of creating an em dash is to use alt and 0151 on the numeric keypad. The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. Improper em dash formation screams inexperience, but em dashes are simple to make, and all authors can become an expert in a few minutes. An em dash is longer than an en dash and three times as long as a hyphen. In america, commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks. The chicago guide to grammar, usage, and punctuation is a magisterial work, the culmination of garners lifelong study of the english language. The author talks about gay rights on pages 101145 of his book.
Using an em dash we use the em dash in sentences to create a strong break to show an interruption, a change of thought, or to show emphasis. Hyphen, en dash or em dash a hyphen is used to connect two words that function as a particular concept, or when linked together form a particular modifier. I perhaps get into the most trouble by confusing the em dash s ability to tack on a thought with the semicolons use as a weighty pause. An en dash, roughly the width of an n, is a little longer than a hyphen. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the podcast awards. The em dash is mostly used in informal writing such as friendly letters, emails, and journals. Notwithstanding its versatility, the em dash is best limited to two appearances per sentence. The blue book of grammar and punctuation an easyto use guide with clear rules, realworld examples. Just dont use more than two in a sentence, according to some experts. Use the em dash to separate a subject, or a series of subjects, from a pronoun that introduces the main clause. En dashes are longer than a hyphen, but half the length of the em dash. The big daddy of dashes, the em dash is generally twice as long again as the en dash. The em dash is useful when you dont want to spend a lot of time over a piece of writing figuring out the precise punctuation it should have.
Experienced writers know that these marks are not interchangeable. Read also about the difference between dashes and hyphens. The result is a landmark resource that will offer clear guidelines to students, writers, and editors alike. Em dashes can also be used to convey a more emphatic aside.
It may be used in place of commas, a semicolon, a colon, or parentheses. To create the em dash on a macintoshbased system, hold down the shift and option keys and press the minus key, notes techwalla, adding that alternatively, you can press the hyphen key twice and press space. Em dash is a longer dash that is used to replace parenthesis or multiple commas in a sentence. The em dash is not used when a comment by the narrator is inserted in dialog. Know your dashes writers write editing writing, writing. Hyphens, en dashes, em dashes the chicago manual of. Em dash 4 capitalization 70 beginning a sentence or.
Glow up tips useful life hacks men style tips men tips tips belleza girls life smell good good to know health and beauty. When to use a hyphen, an en dash or an em dash pr daily. An em dash, or long dash, is used in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence. The chicago guide to grammar, usage, and punctuation chicago guides. The em dash, aka possibly the most adaptable and intuitive punctuation mark there is, gets a lot of loveand the occasional bit of hate. Us publishers and the oxford university press in the uk choose to use closedup em dashes em dashes without any spaces where other uk publishers might use spaced en dashes. What is the difference in usage between an em dash and an en dash. Informally, they separate comments that stray from the central idea of the sentence. On a windowsbased system, you can form an em dash on a keyboard by holding down the alt key and typing 0151. This grammar lesson offers an explanation on the correct use of dashes and gives examples of dashes used in sentences. Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. The following explanations offer the most common uses and methods for forming these dashes.
It is used for periods of time when you might otherwise use to. Whether you are a grammar phobe seeking guidance, a parent looking for a tutorial that your kids will enjoy and therefore use or a writer seeking a fun reference manual for frustrating recurring questions, grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing will likely satisfy. It can add a spiceor a dash, if you willto a sentence by adding emphasis to certain words and phrases. Shes a lovely girl, butand you may hate me for saying soshe cannot dance for the life of her. The two most common dashes are the em dash and the en dash. And of course, some of the best em dash examples exist in the world of literature. Grammar girl xvii introduction xix 1grammar 1 finding subjects and verbs 1 finding verbs.
Depending on the sentence, the emdash can have a similar function to parentheses, colons, commas, and even semicolons. Oxfords new harts rules nhr refers to the en rule and the em rule whereas the chicago manual of style cmos discusses en dashes and em dashes. Note how dashes subtly change the tone of the following sentences. At book cave weve posted on dialogue tags and on whether or not to use single or double quotes, but often there is confusion about where to put punctuation in relation to the quotation marks. A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom. Using em dashes instead of parentheses puts the focus on the information between the em dashes. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons. Otherwise, you may find yourself guilty of making funny punctuation mistakes. Although many people call the hyphen a dash, dash refers to another group of horizontal lines in text. For some writers, the em dash is a vice that their editors occasionally forgive but more often forbid. Use one before the parenthetical information and one after it. We use em dashes to add emphasis to the size of the car. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualize the en dash as the length of the letter n and the em dash as the length of the letter m.
The hyphen, double hyphen, and minus sign are encroaching on the territory of the em dash with increasing frequency in recent years. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girls quick and dirty. You might call it the bad boy, or cool girl, of punctuation. It is useful and versatile, and too few writers make use of it. As always, grammar girl delivers another great little book to make our use of language. Commas arent strong enough to separate action from dialogue. Even reading garner has not made this entirely clear to me. Although many publishing houses have their own inhouse style or grammar guides stipulating how to treat serial commas or ellipses or em dashes, the following primer will guarantee you a manuscript thats clean enough to impress any nitpicking editor even if she later changes it to reflect the publishing houses style choices. In fact, the em dash is named after its lengthits about the same width as the capital letter m. En dashaccording to cmos, en dashes which are half the length of the em dash specify any kind of range, which is why they properly appear in indexes when a range of pages is cited e. Putting spaces before and after an em dash is a matter of preference.
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