Unlocking the Secret Language of Punctuation: Why Dashes and Hyphens Could Change How You Write Forever
When you use these punctuation marks, do you know whether you’re using them as dashes or hyphens?
This post looks at the following punctuation marks:
- Hyphens
- Dashes
- Em-dashes
- En-dashes
Hyphens
A hyphen is used to connect words in order to form a compound. It was also used commonly during the typewriter era to show that a word was broken at a carriage return, but that usage is rarely seen these days. Examples include:
- ten-year-old
- merry-go-round
- editor-in-chief
Hyphens are also used to denote prefixes and suffixes when they are not affixed to a base word. An example would be re- or -ed.
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