{"id":6104,"date":"2020-08-18T15:54:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T07:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2020-08-18T16:10:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T08:10:24","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-hyphens-en-dashes-and-em-dashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hyphens-en-dashes-and-em-dashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know about hyphens (-), en dashes (\u2013) and em dashes (\u2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

Sometimes it is longer, other times it is really short. You might have been confused by the small lines between words\u2014like these\u2014because all of them look similar but can vary in length and function.<\/p>\n

Writers using the English language put a small line between words to denote some sort of relationship, and there are three of them: the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash.<\/p>\n

The hyphen is the shortest among the three, linking individual words together to form a compound lexical unit. The words being linked usually have a history of collocation. For example, when we think of the verb \u201cprovoke\u201d, the word \u201cthoughts\u201d may come to mind. Hence, people use the compound adjective \u201cthought-provoking\u201d as a modifier of a noun. In other cases, fixed phrases such as \u201con the go\u201d (meaning something keeps running), can be hyphenated to become a compound adjective, such as an \u201con-the-go charger\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hyphenated words are not only used as adjectives: modern English also allows quite flexible use of affixes in forming nouns and the like. \u201cPan-democrats\u201d and \u201cpro-communist\u201d are some of the creative examples of this approach. Proper nouns can also be joined to indicate co-existence or cooperation between names, such as the very well-known \u201cHong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge\u201d.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, the hyphen symbol is identical to the minus sign used in arithmetic when it comes to digital documents.<\/p>\n

Next on the list is the en dash, which indicates a range. It has a similar meaning to the preposition \u201cto\u201d or \u201cthrough\u201d. Examples include \u201cpages 4\u20139\u201d, \u201cMon\u2013Fri\u201d, \u201c14:30\u201316:30\u201d and \u201c24 July\u20131 August\u201d. As you probably notice, an en dash is longer than a hyphen. It has been stated anecdotally that an en dash is exactly the length, typographically, of the letter \u201cn\u201d, thus giving it the name. On a Windows-based computer, an en dash can be rendered by the following key sequence: Alt 0150.<\/p>\n

The em dash, on the other hand, is not as simple. Its function is different from the word-level linkage achieved by using hyphens. Instead, an em dash suggests relationship either between clauses, phrases or ideas. It has a similar size typographically to the letter \u201cm\u201d, it is said. On a Windows-based computer, the proper way to render an em dash is the key sequence Alt 0151<\/p>\n

An em dash can be used instead of a colon. For example: \u201cShe did everything this morning\u2014washing the dishes, hanging the clothes and cooking breakfast for her kids\u201d. It can also replace a pair of commas or brackets: \u201cYou should ask Professor Chan\u2014the one who taught you marketing last semester\u2014to write the reference letter for you\u201d.<\/p>\n

In rare cases, the em dash is used to hide the full form of a word, either because the word is offensive or it is confidential: \u201cThe serial burglar, J\u2014\u2014, was arrested in a police operation last night\u201d. Last but not least, you sometimes see em dashes used in fictional work to indicate interruption of speech. For instance, In The Great Gatsby<\/em>, when the narrator Nick Carraway talks about where he used to live, his words are rendered: \u201cI lived at West Egg, the\u2014well, the less fashionable of the two\u201d.<\/p>\n

To recap, hyphens are used in compound words, en dashes in describing ranges, and em dashes in phrases or clauses. If you still find hyphens and dashes confusing, bear in mind one simple rule: the longer the text items being linked, the longer the line you will need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Name<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\nSymbol<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\nKey sequence on Windows computer*<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\nShortcut in Microsoft Word on Windows computer*<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\nGeneral shortcut on Mac computer<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\nHTML Code<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Hyphen \/ Minus<\/span><\/td>\n–<\/span><\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\n–<\/td>\nSame as the minus key<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
En Dash<\/span><\/td>\n\u2013<\/span><\/td>\nAlt 0150<\/span><\/td>\nCtrl –<\/span><\/td>\nOption –<\/span><\/td>\n&ndash;<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Em Dash<\/span><\/td>\n\u2014<\/span><\/td>\nAlt 0151<\/span><\/td>\nCtrl Alt –<\/span><\/td>\nShift Option –<\/span><\/td>\n&mdash;<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

*<\/sup> The digits 0\u20139 after the Alt key must come from a numeric keypad. Likewise, the minus sign after the Ctrl or Ctrl Alt combination must also come from a keypad.<\/p>\n

By IFTM faculty members Mr. Wilson Hong and Dr. Simon Lei<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it is longer, other times it is really short. You might have been confused by the small lines between words\u2014like these\u2014because all of them look similar but can vary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,136],"tags":[1458,1457,1455,1456,217,1089],"class_list":["post-6104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ict_in_education","category-main_headline","tag-em-dash","tag-en-dash","tag-english","tag-hyphen","tag-simon-lei","tag-wilson-hong"],"views":9572,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6111,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions\/6111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}