Interruptions & Inclusions & Compounds—Oh My: A Who’s Who of Dashes & Hyphens
This week we’re zooming in on an oft-overlooked but important element of punctuation & grammar—dashes and hyphens.
In this post:
There’s a difference?
The hyphen
The em dash
The en dash
References
There’s a difference?
Indeed, there is! But not to worry. If you find yourself puzzling over just what that difference is—or, perhaps, the still more head-scratching difference between an em dash and an en dash—you may find it comforting to know that you’re not alone. Lots of folks have spent a considerable chunk of time pondering these particular nuggets of punctuation and grammar, yet still find themselves reaching for a style guide when confronted with the choice. Perhaps the em stands for “mystery” you may be thinking, or en is secretly short for “enigmatic.”
Though no one can promise all future encounters will go without a hitch (there are always, of course, personal style differences to account for), we can perhaps clear a few things up regarding common usage.
The hyphen (-)
Speaking of a different kind of hitch, the hyphen (-) is a well-known connector of compound words or phrases. For example, the one appearing in the previous sentence. And yet, if we had instead phrased it as “the hyphen was well known,” we would omit the hyphen, so what gives?
There are, unsurprisingly, different kinds of compounds and rules dictating when to use each. For the sake of brevity, I’ve highlighted a rule or two for those defined below. Style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition cover them in more depth:
Hyphenated compounds are those spelled with one or more hyphens. For example, high-quality, tight-lipped or well-read. Typically, a compound appearing before a noun is hyphenated while those appearing after a noun, or as a noun, may be open (see below). For example, compare “the snow-white sheets” with “the sheets were snow white.”
Open compounds are those spelled as two or more words. For example, more thorough, highly paid, cooking class. “Widely known,” a variation on the example in the first paragraph of this section, is open as that is the rule for all adverbs ending in ly when combined with a participle or adjective.
Closed compounds are usually those which have become one word through common usage (e.g., electromagnetic or socioeconomic). These may have been hyphenated initially, but tend to close as they enter the regular lexicon. For a modern example, e-mail was the initial form for what is now commonly email.
Hyphens can be used for a variety of things beyond compounds as well, including:
Separating prefixes, suffixes or medial elements in a word (e.g., pre-surgery, will-o’-the-wisp.)
Representing stuttering or halting speech in dialogue (e.g., “B-b-but I thought you said…”)
Spelling a word out by letter (e.g., “I’m going to give the dog a t-r-e-a-t.”)
A good guideline to remember is this: hyphens tend to be used in situations where clarity is needed. When in doubt, err on the side of hyphenation.
The em dash (—)(–)
Mysterious, maybe, but also full of majesty, the em dash (—) is punctuation which evokes scents of dark roast and wooden baseboards, conjures the steady click-clack of a typewriter. For good reason, too. Its roots are in traditional typesetting where the dash was the same length as a capital M.
The uses of the em dash are many, such as emphasizing a particular part of the text where the usual comma, colon or parentheses might not. Its use is dictated by the preference of the author, editor or publisher.
In some cases, the em dash is used to highlight information which could otherwise be softened by parentheses. For example, compare the two versions of the sentence below:
The players tried—but failed—for a forward pass.
The players tried (but failed) for a forward pass.
An em dash makes the failure in question more important—perhaps a critical misstep at the end of a game—whereas the parentheses make it seem as if the failure was inconsequential (and did not ultimately affect the rest of play).
Em dashes are also used when a digression is long, or itself contains commas. (E.g., “There were three—the first a tall, curved beauty that caught her eye—all reasonably priced and wide enough to hold all the sunflowers she had picked.”) It can be used to interrupt a thought or mark an abrupt change (e.g., “Well I suppose—nevermind.”)
And, just to clear things up, the inclusion or lack of spaces around the em dash is up to the particular style guide you’re following. The Chicago Manual of Style (most often used for fiction works), for instance, states that there should be no spaces around the dash.
There are a number of other uses of the em dash that we haven’t the space to explore here, though intriguing in their own right and sometimes rare. Not all of us, for instance, must resort to the em dash to denote dialogue as a result of a Joycean loathing of the quotation mark.
The en dash (–)
The last mark, the en dash (–) falls between a hyphen and an em dash in terms of length, and like its oldest (or, more accurately, longest) sibling, it also gets its name from a typewriter key: the capital N. Unfortunately, it also tends to be the stereotypical, forgotten middle child of the group. That said, it has possibly the easiest rule set to remember.
For numbers and dates, as well as capitalized names which could otherwise be joined by phrases such as “between” or “to,” people often use a hyphen as this may be more accessible on modern word processors. That said, an en dash is the official and appropriate mark.
Examples include:
The museum is open from 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
The campaign ran from June 1–September 30
The Bedford–Cambridge train
The other use of the en dash is to link compound adjectives when one or more words is an open compound. For example, pre–Gulf War or hydrogen peroxide–free solution.
And there you have it—a foundational understanding of hyphens and dashes and, perhaps, more appreciation for them. Through further experiences and encounters, you will build a deeper knowledge of these important marks, but as is always suggested, remember that you can consult your style guide or dictionary for any new permutations.
References
Taggart, Caroline. “Why Punctuation Is Not Just for Pedants.” The Irish Times. November 28, 2017. Also available at https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/why-punctuation-is-not- just-for-pedants-1.3308176.
The Chicago Manual of Style. 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Mary Kehoe provides structural, stylistic and copy editing services for a variety of written works through her agency, Elixir Editorial. From time to time she dabbles in her own writing projects which tend toward the speculative genre.
She is a member of both Editors Canada and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), as well as a founding member and former chair of the Toronto Arts & Letters Club writing group. A longtime lover of the English language, Mary is passionate about supporting writers on the journey to inspire the world.
