Three Types of Dashes

Three Types of Dashes and When to use Them

 

Dashes: There are three types of dashes commonly used in writing. Each has its own significant purpose.

Hyphen
En Dash

Em Dash

 

One:

Hyphen -The basic function of a hyphen is to separate the words in a compound adjective, verb, or adverb.

 

Two:

En Dash – Is a typographical unit that is almost as wide as the letter N. It is used for periods of time when you might otherwise use to and in place of a hyphen when combining open compounds.

Three:

Em Dash – Is a typographical unit that is almost the width of the letter M. It’s commonly used to replace comma, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought.

Examples:

En Dash – When using an en dash in your writing use the short cut alt 0150.


March–June
The Iowa–Illinois State Line


Em Dash – When using an em dash use short cut alt 0151.


I work hard—she spends all the money.
If only we could—oh, forget I said anything.


Ellipsis – The famous dot, dot, dot used to leave a reader hanging in suspense. This typographical punctuation’s short cut is alt 0133.



Original Sentence:

“All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits or risk being fined high penalties.”

Rewritten:

“All employers must offer full time employees insurance benefits…”

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