How To Use Dashes Grammar

To properly use a dash in an english sentence start by identifying which dash you should use.

How to use dashes grammar. Rules for using dashes. Short dashes technically en dashes aren t as showy as their wider cousins but they re still useful. Where parentheses indicate that the reader should put less emphasis on the enclosed material dashes indicate that the reader should pay more attention to the material between the dashes. Dashes like commas semicolons colons ellipses and parentheses indicate added emphasis an interruption or an abrupt change of thought. It is used in the same manner as a parenthetical expression.

A single dash can emphasize material at the beginning or end of a sentence. There are three forms of dashes. Spacing with punctuation periods commas semicolons colons question marks parentheses and brackets apostrophes hyphens dashes ellipses quotation marks exclamation points slashes. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end.

Both dashes do exactly the same thing. Dashes can be used for emphasis in several ways. Long dashes what grammarians call em dashes are dramatic. A dash can be used to add emphasis at the beginning middle or end of a sentence. Dashes add drama parentheses whisper.

Generally speaking the dash does not have a unique role. Place em dashes around non essential information or a list in the middle of a sentence like you would with commas. When used to extend a sentence a dash can replace a semicolon a colon or three dots used as a pause for effect. Those long straight lines draw your eye and hold your attention. 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 em dash is the largest of the three kinds of dashes. It is usually used as an alternative to another type of punctuation. Us english publications tend to use the longer em dash. To set off material for emphasis. At emphasis we use the shorter en dash as it s used most extensively in british english and we re based in great britain.