In my opinion, the en dash is the most misused punctuation mark we have. Or I guess to be more accurate, the en dash is the punctuation we should use, technically, yet don’t use. I think most people are comfortable with the hyphen, so the en dash gets left out. But, that might be a conscious choice for some publishers . . . we might see the end of the en dash soon (maybe we already have?).
When I was teaching, I tried to bring the en dash into the classroom, but it created a lot of confusion for my students because it is a similar size to the hyphen. So what is an en dash? An en dash is used to show a range or span of numbers, dates, or time. Basically, the en dash means “to” or “through.” As in, pages 5 through 7, pages 5–7), or a score of 49 to 15, 49–15).
As with every punctuation mark, the en dash has a complicated life. Much like the em dash, it’s tricky to create an en dash on computers, and often requires inserting it as a specific symbol. This is why I think we don’t use it: it seems to require more work than it’s worth. For instance, did you know that in most papers that use citations, en dashes are technically required, but because so few people use the en dash properly in citations, the hyphen is often accepted. So if we don’t see it in action properly, how can we know when and where to use it?
Fun fact: In the UK, writers use the en dash the same way that writers in the US and Canada use an em dash.
The en dash got it’s name years ago when printing required an actual printing press. The en dash is the same width as an uppercase N on the printing press, and so the name stuck. For some reason, publishers decided that a they needed something new, something to communicate to their readers different information. They didn’t want to use hyphens (which have a specific job), and they wanted the en dash to do different work than the em dash, so they met in the middle: a punctuation mark longer than a hyphen, but shorter than an em dash.
Fun fact: Several sources say that the en dash helps to add clarity with complex compound adjectives.
So why of this important? Why does it matter? All punctuation was created for a reason, and that reason was to add clarity to writing for the readers. But do we readers even notice if someone has used an en dash or a hyphen? Probably not. (Can you truly spot the difference?: 14-8; 14–8) So I say, the en dash is probably the one punctuation mark that you can forget about, not use when you should, and honestly completely ignore and your reader will never notice the difference. So, happy writing. And to en dash or not? Writer’s choice.
Photo by Daria Kraplak on Unsplash