Special Issue: En Dashes, Em Dashes and Hyphens

Dashes vs Hyphens: Explanation and Examples

You’re in the middle of writing a brilliant sentence when you find yourself confronted with the ultimate linear dilemma: to use a hyphen, an en dash or an em dash?

Each type of dash has a few different uses. Em dashes can replace most other punctuation in certain contexts, while en dashes help represent duration. Hyphens are great for making compound words easier to read.

But it doesn't end there! Find out all of the different uses and when you might want to break the rules in our complete guide. 

Head over to the blog to read the full guide now.

Em Dashes: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

If you're anything like us—and we think you probably are—you'll love using em dashes. 

This little piece of punctuation can replace other punctuation like colons, parentheses, commas and semi-colons. This can help certain information to stand out and even change the tone of a whole sentence. 

But beware: em dashes aren't welcome everywhere. Learn the rules (including AP idiosyncrasies) and start using em dashes like a pro with this guide. 

Catch the article on our blog—you won't want to miss it.

An en dash is slightly wider than a hyphen but smaller than an em dash.

Generally, the en dash reads as “to” or “through” when read out loud. But as with almost every grammar rule, there are exceptions. 

When should en dashes be surrounded by spaces? Should you use "from" before an en dash date span? We answer these and loads more questions about the en dash in our dedicated article. 

Learn how to use en dashes with examples, exceptions and simple explanations.

You've (probably) never been in a fight with someone over the right way to use an em dash. But it's still always a good idea to make sure you're using en and em dashes correctly in your articles, essays, reports, manuscripts and posts. 

Compare the conventions for US and UK English, find out the keyboard shortcuts for each dash across devices and—of course—learn the ropes through examples of all the key ways we use dashes. 

Start fighting en vs. em dash indecision with this article.