I thought that all hyphen-looking punctuation marks were the same. In high school I had an English teacher who encouraged us to use dashes in our writing, and boy, did I ever. I enjoyed the jolt it created for the eye when reading. And there’s satisfaction in using a dash—it adds some punch to your voice.
I think it’s common for a lot of writers of all kinds to not know exactly what to use or when. And for a teacher, how much do you teach? Are kids really going to want to learn the difference between a hyphen and an em dash in grade 7? Maybe.
But what are these different hyphen-looking punctuation marks, and when do you use them? There are three different punctuation marks that look similar, but do different work. So, here we go!
Hyphen
This one is the most used, most familiar. (Note: do not get hyphen confused with hymen–that creates a very different Google search.) Firstly, hyphens help to create hyphenated compound words. These are super familiar to us. For instance, the good-looking drummer from last night’s concert was in my the coffee shop this morning. My mother-in-law is changing the oil in her car this afternoon. For this use of hyphens, use it if the compound adjective (good-looking) comes before the noun (drummer) it modifies. (The drummer last night was good looking. The good-looking drummer drinks lattes.)
The next way to use a hyphen is with numbers and compound adjectives. Not with showing time between numbers (like 5-6…nope). But here’s the confusing thing…you use hyphens with some numbers. Like this: one of my students gave a 20-minute speech on leeches this morning. Talking about twentieth-century film is fun. Or, you can use hyphens to properly write out longer, double-digit numbers and fractions: twenty-two eggs, eighty-eight elephants, mid-1960’s fashion, two-thirds finished.
The hyphen’s work is not yet done. It can do another thing! Hyphens can link prefixes to words. For example, my co-workers think they’re funny. This is especially important when using the word self. He’s so self-important. Self-care is more than a manicure. Please self-assess for symptoms before coming into work. Okay, so sometimes hyphens work with suffixes, too. Like this, our work place had a factory-like feel about it.
En Dash
This one is a bit strange, but is more familiar than you think. We use this one most often (even though we most likely use a hyphen instead). An en dash is named because of it’s length: the width of an N. It shows a length of time or a range of numbers. It’s also used to show scores. For instance, I lived from 1994–1997 in Winnipeg. The group would like between 10–15 participants to volunteer this week. She often reads 100–150 pages in a sitting. I was waited from 11:00–1:00 to get into the shoe store sale. The CFL Grey Cup final score was 37–28. See—you use it more than you thought!
But wait, there’s more. For some interesting reason, we use the en dash in some compound adjective situations to show deeper connection, usually conflict. For instance, the liberal–conservative debate heated up last night. The north–south train line was slow last night. English, why do you have so many strange rules?
There’s another en dash rule. It’s like a super-hyphen. Use an en dash when using compound adjectives with open compound adjectives: The post–Trudeau era. In this case, Trudeau era is an open compound adjective, so the en dash is needed to create the first compound adjective. Perhaps a step too far? Oh en dash, how we misuse you!
Em Dash
This one is probably more familiar for fiction readers. This one is my favourite—it adds drama and flare to writing. It is the same width as a capital M—so slightly larger than the en dash. I find that I use the em dash more in my creative writing than in my formal writing. I once had someone highlight a pair of em dashes in my report card comments and said I should use parentheses instead. But honestly, I think it’s up to your style guide or style preference. Dash away!
The easier way to use an em dash is to set off parenthetical information. For example, my roommates—who love dogs and cats—just got a fish. One of the greatest—no, best—books ever written was translated into 100 languages. I feel like we’re all comfortable with this one, right?
Next, you can use it to change the direction of a thought, or complete it (like in a list). For example, I did laundry and vacuumed this morning—I’m ready for a break! What was that song—never mind, it’s on the radio right now. Fried, mashed, boiled—I love eating potatoes!
Em dashes also work like semicolons in that they can connect independent clauses. My friend Karol missed the last step on our patio—she’s in a cast for at least six weeks. I noticed that I’m getting more grey hairs—I need to book a hair appointment.
The more complicated—no, nuanced—use of the em dash is with appositives. Refresher: an appositive is a noun or pronoun that is used to describe another noun. For example, eating his favourite foods—burgers, hotdogs, and sausages—helped him feel more alive during the summer months. I crashed my car—my $50,00 brand new car—into a light pole. This is similar to parenthetical information, so maybe this isn’t as complicated after all.
Hopefully this was somewhat helpful—and hopefully you read all the way to the end. It’s a lot to take in. But, once you get the hang of hyphens and dashes, they add more spice to your writing. And, you will notice errors everywhere—all the time!
Lastly, the link for the photo (I didn’t create it, sadly): https://memegenerator.net/instance/58060274/grammar-guy-em-dash-please