{"id":468032,"date":"2022-06-26T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T12:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/"},"modified":"2022-06-26T15:00:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T12:00:12","slug":"whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/","title":{"rendered":"#What\u2019s the Difference Between Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3ccb4c3b72d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3ccb4c3b72d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/#%E2%80%9CWhats_the_Difference_Between_Em_Dash_En_Dash_and_Hyphen%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;What\u2019s the Difference Between Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen?&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/#Em_Dash_vs_En_Dash_vs_Hyphen_vs_Minus\" >Em Dash vs. En Dash vs. Hyphen vs. Minus<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/#Whats_the_Difference_Between_a_Dash_and_Em_Dash\" >What\u2019s the Difference Between a Dash and Em Dash?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWhats_the_Difference_Between_Em_Dash_En_Dash_and_Hyphen%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;What\u2019s the Difference Between Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen?&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-812110\" data-pagespeed-no-defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/dictionary_hero_1.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"An open book on a desk in a library\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/education-learning-concept-opening-book-textbook-794015686\">Chinnapong\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the world of typography, a humble horizontal line can mean at least seven different things depending on its length and the context in which it gets used. <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General<\/a>ly, the most confusing of these are the hyphen, en dash, and em dash. We\u2019ll explain the differences.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Em_Dash_vs_En_Dash_vs_Hyphen_vs_Minus\"><\/span>Em Dash vs. En Dash vs. Hyphen vs. Minus<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As we mentioned above, each type of dash, hyphen, or minus sign has its own special length, and each also gets its own Unicode character. Let\u2019s take a look at how each one differs\u2014and we\u2019ll also show you how to type them.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Hyphen (-):<\/strong> A hyphen joins words together and is used to form compound words (usually compound adjectives) such as \u201conce-in-a-lifetime\u201d or \u201ccyborg-related.\u201d It is the shortest of the horizontal-line family of punctuation marks. To type a hyphen, simply press the minus key on your keyboard.<\/li>\n<li><strong>En Dash (\u2013):<\/strong> An en dash is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em dash. It\u2019s used to denote a numerical range (such as 1981-1983) or to replace the word \u201cto\u201d in comparisons. You can type it on Windows by holding Alt on your keyboard and pressing 0150. On Mac, type it by pressing Option+Minus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Em Dash (\u2014):<\/strong> An em dash is longer than a hyphen and an en dash, and it\u2019s often used to separate interjections or parenthetical phrases\u2014such as this one\u2014without interrupting the flow of the sentence. It can also <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/grammar.yourdictionary.com\/punctuation\/3-types-of-dashes-and-correct-usage-in-writing.html\">replace<\/a> other types of punctuation as well. The em dash <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/14\/style\/em-dash-punctuation.html\">inspires controversy<\/a> at times because of how often it <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ears in modern writing. To type it on Windows, press Alt+0151. On a Mac, press Shift+Option+Minus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Minus (\u2212):<\/strong> A minus is a mathematical symbol that is technically longer than a hyphen and shorter than an em dash. We say \u201ctechnically\u201d because most people use the same minus key to type either a hyphen or minus <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hyphen-minus\">interchangeably<\/a> on computers due to historical precedent from the typewriter era. Officially, hyphen and minus are two distinct characters. To type a minus informally, press the minus key on your keyboard. If you want the official Unicode minus character, you can use the Emoji picker in Windows (press Alt+Period) or on the Mac (Press Ctrl+Command+Space) then select it from the menu with your mouse cursor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As if that weren\u2019t enough, there are other horizontal line Unicode characters, such as <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Underscore\">underscore<\/a> (_), <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Macron_(diacritic)\">macron<\/a> (\u00af), and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Overline\">overline<\/a> (\u203e)\u2014all of which can be used in different contexts to mean different things. Type is very complicated, and usually you don\u2019t need to worry about those. For the average person, you can often get by knowing just hyphen and em dash.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whats_the_Difference_Between_a_Dash_and_Em_Dash\"><\/span>What\u2019s the Difference Between a Dash and Em Dash?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-812178\" data-pagespeed-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/dashed_against_rocks.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Waves being dashed against rocks in the ocean.\" width=\"650\" height=\"385\" src=\"\/pagespeed_static\/1.JiBnMqyl6S.gif\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/violent-waves-dashed-against-rocks-by-1598420638\">Changyu lu\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even after all of that, you might still be confused: What about plain old \u201cdash\u201d? What is it, and how is it different than these other symbols? Well, it turns out that in the world of modern typography, a regular \u201cdash\u201d as a singular punctuation mark doesn\u2019t really exist. Instead, \u201cdash\u201d is a term that <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dash\">encompasses<\/a> multiple punctuation marks like the en dash and em dash.<\/p>\n<p>So informally, you can say \u201cdash\u201d and mean either en dash or em dash, but if you want to type a dash, you have to pick one of the specific types of dashes. Hope we haven\u2019t dashed your hopes! Good luck out there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>What Are Character Encodings Like ANSI and Unicode, and How Do They Differ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/812094\/whats-the-difference-between-em-dash-en-dash-and-hyphen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What\u2019s the Difference Between Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen?&#8221; Chinnapong\/Shutterstock.com In the world of typography, a humble horizontal line can mean at least seven different things depending on its length and the context in which it gets used. Generally, the most confusing of these are the hyphen, en dash, and em dash. We\u2019ll explain&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/dictionary_hero_1.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}