Today ill explain the difference between dashes, commas, and parentheses. Thousands of childrenlike the girl in this photographhave been left homeless. The emdashes convey a sense of speed and pace better than quotation marks, especially when there is interruption. Answers to the 25 most common grammar, punctuation, and usage conundrums arlene miller the grammar diva author of the best little grammar book ever. Types of dashes there are several kinds of dashes, differing from one another in length.
The use of dashes is inconsistent in lots of writing regardless of how professional the writers are. Dashes are used to give emphasis to written ideas and are typed by using two hyphens. How to use the hyphen, en dash and em dash ndash mdash, n. Feb 6, 2012 explore realgrammargirls board grammar girl. Em dashes are often used to set off parenthetical information. Its longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. A colon informs readers that something more is coming along. Grammar girl xvii introduction xix 1grammar 1 finding subjects and verbs 1. A hyphens chief function is to merge two or more separate words.
The en dash takes up a width equal to the letter n. Know your dashes writers write editing writing, writing. If we can trust grammar girls thoroughness of search, then her advice is sound every style guide i checked, except the ap stylebook, stated there should be. Em dashthats the long dash, and as grammarist says, em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. Dashes 68 en dash em dash 4 capitalization 70 beginning a sentence or quoted sentence proper nouns. Daily grammar lesson 426 mechanics punctuation dashes.
Theres no shame in acknowledging that you dont understand the diverse and distinct uses of hyphens, em dashes, and en dashes. Its also important that when you set off a phrase using emdashes that you used one emdash immediately after the noun the phrase is describing and one immediately after the phrase. That girl is obsessed with commas, semicolons, and em dashes. Hyphens between words quiz 1 the blue book of grammar. This grammar lesson offers an explanation on the correct use of dashes and gives examples of dashes used in sentences.
Fourth grade teacher, las vegas public school system whether you are a grammarphobe seeking guidance, a parent looking for a tutorial that your kids will enjoy and therefore use or a writer seeking a fun reference manual for frustrating recurring questions, grammar girls quick and. He told me that his birthday wish would be for me to do a show to help him understand the difference between dashes, commas, and parentheses because it keeps coming up in his writing. Whether you need to know how to treat numbers, when to italicize certain terms, how to use hyphens, em dashes, and en dashes, how to format dialogue, when to capitalize a term, or when to use an ellipsis and how to format it, the chicago manual of style cmos has the answer. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing book. Her more than 50 books include english grammar for dummies and many childrens books. For each of the following, choose the correct sentence. For example, em dashes are used when a parenthetical remark contains an internal comma or would otherwise sound awkward if enclosed by commas. Grammar girls tm by clicking here quick and dirty tips tm for better writing. The en dash is so named because it is approximately the equivalent width of the uppercase letter n and the em dash is roughly the width. The term em dash is a printers term meaning the width of the letter m. No, cookie dough is not a valid answer but it is probably a good answer. This grammar lesson offers an explanation on the correct use of hyphens and gives examples of hyphens used in sentences.
An em dash, or long dash, is used in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence. She is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame, and the show is a fivetime winner of best education podcast in the. Using em dashes instead of parentheses puts the focus on the information between the em dashes. Otherwise, you may find yourself guilty of making funny punctuation mistakes. Though en dashes and em dashes are sometimes confused or even used interchangeably, they have distinct purposes. Dashes, colons, and commas can change the way your sentences feel. Fifty shades of grammar the great grammar cheat sheet beyond worksheets the grammar diva blog weekly posts. They are different from dashes, which are used for parenthesis or to extend a sentence. In most american print and ebooks, correct em dash formation is done by using two hyphens with no spacing, which then becomes an em dash also called the long dash in most word processing programs as you continue typing. A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualize the en dash as the length of the letter n and the em dash as the length of the letter m. Telecharger ou lire en ligne the high tide club livre gratuit pdfepub. If the break belongs to the surrounding sentence rather than to the quoted material, the em dashes must appear outside the quotation marks. In this use, em dashes are similar to commas and parentheses, but there are subtle differences. Use title case for proper nouns for example, names of people, places or organisations.
Start here for quick tips to get punctuation on track for you or your students. Mignon fogarty is the founder of quick and dirty tips and the author of seven books on language, including the new york times bestseller grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. En dashes dashes that are the width of the character n have. Dont leave the two hyphens if they dont merge to form the em dash. The blue book of grammar and punctuation an easytouse guide with clear rules, realworld examples. See more ideas about grammar and punctuation, teaching grammar and teaching writing. Quick and dirty grammar at a glance i bet you thought grammar couldnt get any more quick and dirty than it did in the previous pages, but heres the quickest grammar of all, culled from lengthier explanations found elsewhere in this book. The hyphen, the em dash, and the en dash are all horizontal marks of.
The typical computer keyboard lacks a dedicated key for the en dash, though most word processors provide a means for its insertion. Dont replace the second emdash as some tend to with a comma or semicolon. Our school board provides the students with free books, book covers, a notebook cover, notebook paper, yellow pads, and one pencil every six weeks. We use emdashes to add emphasis to the size of the car. Em dashes no spaces this article is about em dashes no spaces enjoy your reading. To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, ill start by comparing two sentences. In fact, its clear that the majority of the population doesnt because we see them misused all the time. He had tried to changeyoure not even paying attention. Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation, such as the commas after iowa and 20 in the following examples without dash. The en dash is used to represent a span or range of numbers, dates, or time. Its almost like no one sits down with the 1,000page chicago manual of style for a light read anymore. Dashes, colons, and commas grammar girl quick and dirty tips.
En dashes with compound adjectives, chicago manual of style. The 3em dash which is the width of three ms in the corresponding font most frequently appears in a bibliography when an authors name is cited more than once. Em dashes set apart parenthetical phrases or clauses in a sentence. Please consult your favorite grammar book or blog for notes on usage. Correct me if im wrong the best grammar workbook ever. The editors blog is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to. The may 1, 20, edition of the ames sentinel arrived in june. A dashing young man is certainly not an ordinary young man, and if. Capitalise the principal words only, to distinguish them from common nouns or the generic meaning. Stever robbins, the host of the getitdone guy podcast, has been writing a book, and his birthday is today.
Putting spaces before and after an em dash is a matter of preference. When using the hyphen, the en dash, or the em dash, mostbut not allstyle books advocate. Besides covering the many troubling grammar issues that this book is an excellent guide for all writers and students to keep for handy reference. If you find yourself getting stumped on issues such as these issues. The dash is a punctuation mark that is similar in appearance to the hyphen and minus sign but differs from these symbols in length and, in some fonts, height above the baseline. Dashes replace otherwise mandatory punctuation, such as the commas after iowa and 20 in the following examples. Read also about the difference between dashes and hyphens.
Dashes are used to separate groups of words, not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. If you look at these marks with style in mind, the ellipsis is most similar to the em dash. Parenthetical words, phrases, and clauses are usually remarks from the writer, informative sidenotes, introduced abbreviations, definitions, translations, examples. This short manual is an excerpt of a previously published grammar girl book, but focuses. Dashes are used to extend a sentence to replace colons, semicolons, or three dots. Use one before the parenthetical information and one after it. The most common versions of the dash are the en dash, longer than a hyphen. Before you go throwing in commas all willynilly, you first have to decide what flavor of english youre using. How to match your message to the situation dummies. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons.
The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. Geraldine woods has taught every level of english from 5th grade through ap. The words after a colon define or clarify what came before the colon. En dashes are longer than a hyphen but shorter than a regular or em dash. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by. Em dashes a proper dash in a sentence is actually an em dash like so. Here are the four main uses of the comma 1 to prevent misreading. Use a dash to show a break in thought or sentence structure example. On the other hand, if your speech represents some decisiveness, the cms recommends one or two emdashes also called simply dashes for interruptions, abrupt changes in thought, or impatient fractures of grammar.
Depending on the sentence, the emdash can have a similar function to parentheses. There are actually two types of dashes, each with different uses. The two hobbies before the colon are defined after the colon as cooking and bothering aardvark a dash also introduces extra material, but, well, a dash is quite a dramatic punctuation mark. There are en dashes short, em dashes medium, and 2. Im sure weve all read several books on the subjects of grammar and punctuation, but this book is a true gem because it covers so much and is illustrated in simple and. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing.