Hyphens and Dashes

Using a prefix can change the meaning of the root word. Some prefixes are joined to a root noun or verb using a hyphen. Here are a few examples:

To form a compound noun, we use a hyphen between the nouns. Here are the examples:

Sometimes we can use hyphens between numbers and nouns to form a single adjective. These are called compound adjectives. For example:

Hyphens are also used to make the meanings clearer and the words easier to read. Sometimes the meaning of the words would change without the hyphen.

Em dashes (—) work like parentheses and commas and add non-essential information to the sentence, especially when the information we are adding doesn't fit well with the sentence. The em dashes can be used with space on either side or without spaces, depending on the style of writing. For example:

En dashes (–) are used to replace words such as 'and', 'through', and 'to' in numerical ranges, when describing directions, relationships, or scores. Pay attention to the examples:

Sometimes, especially in British English, the en dash does the same thing as the em dash and adds extra information to the sentence. In these cases, there are spaces on both sides of the en dash. Although commas can be used for this purpose too, dashes are preferable when the information we are adding doesn't fit well with the sentence.

When we want to add a set of appositives we should put them between dashes. For example:

When we want to repeat an emphatic part or phrase in a sentence, we can use a dash at the beginning of the emphatic part. Check out these examples.