12/2/2023 0 Comments Em dash vs en dash![]() Identifying how an em-dash is used and actually using one in your own writing are two different things, the latter being trickier. Don’t replace the second em-dash (as some tend to) with a comma or semicolon. It’s also important that when you set off a phrase using em-dashes that you used one em-dash immediately after the noun the phrase is describing and one immediately after the phrase. We use em-dashes to add emphasis to the size of the car. Now he is “stuffing” four other friends into this small car. But in the second sentence, the size of the Honda is relevant to the road trip. Since we don’t want to bring too much attention to this information, we keep this information in parentheses. In the first sentence, the fact that he has a small Honda doesn’t seem that closely connected to the fact that he took a road trip. So, let’s start with opens in a new windowparentheses versus em-dash, by comparing two sentences.ĭennis took his car (a tiny, two-door Honda) on a weekend road trip.ĭennis stuffed his four best friends into his car-a tiny, two-door Honda-for a weekend road trip. Lastly, I’ll touch on how to avoid overusing or misusing the em-dash-which can become tempting once you learn its many uses. I’ll begin with parentheses, then discuss commas, move on to a semicolon, and finally end with a colon. ![]() ![]() To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, I’ll start by comparing two sentences: one that contains an em-dash (or em-dashes) and one that contains another punctuation mark. But an em-dash is not the same as these other marks it brings a different flavor to the sentence and adds a special emphasis that wasn’t there before. Depending on the sentence, the em-dash can have a similar function to parentheses, colons, commas, and even semicolons. I am talking about the em-dash, which looks like two hyphens connected into one long line. ![]()
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