![]() If you open with from, pair it with to instead of an en dash (from 1880 to 1912, not from 1880–1912). The en dash ( –) is about half as wide.Įn and em dashes are often approximated by typing two or three hyphens in a row ( - or - ). The em dash ( -) is typically about as wide as a capital H. If you mean the latter, then you’d write five-dollar bills.ĭashes come in two sizes-the en dash and the em dash. Is five the quantity of dollar bills, or are the bills each worth five dollars? As written, it suggests the former. As a professional writer, you should not.įor instance, consider the unhyphenated phrase five dollar bills. Nonprofessional writers often omit these hyphens. Nor is a hyphen necessary in multipart foreign terms or proper names used as adjectives ( habeas corpus appeal on the Third Circuit docket, not habeas-corpus appeal on the Third-Circuit docket).Ī hyphen is used in phrasal adjectives (commercial-speech restriction, estate-planning attorney, law-school grades) to ensure clarity. No hyphen is necessary in phrasal adjectives that begin with an adverb ending in ‑ly (it’s a closely held company, not a closely-held company). But a prefix is not typically followed with a hyphen ( nonprofit, not non-profit). Some multipart words are spelled with a hyphen (topsy-turvy, cost-effective, bric-a-brac). These hyphens are added and removed automatically by your word processor’s hyphenation feature. It has three uses.Ī hyphen appears at the end of a line when a word breaks onto the next line. ![]() The hyphen ( -) is the smallest of these marks. Hyphens and dashes look similar, but they’re not interchangeable. ![]() Hyphens and dashes Use them, don’t confuse them ![]()
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