A dash is a punctuation mark. It is longer than a hyphen and is used differently.
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A dash is a punctuation mark. It is longer than a hyphen and is used differently.
Common dashes
There are several forms of dash, of which the most common are:
Hyphen
main: Hyphen The hyphen is used both to join words and to separate syllables. Strictly speaking, the hyphen is not a dash; thus, careful typesetting (including with modern computer applications, such as word processors and HTML) relies on the following proper dashes instead.
Figure dash
The figure dash is so named because it is the same width as a digit, at least in typefaces with digits of equal width.
The figure dash is used when a dash must be used within numbers, for example with telephone numbers: 867 5309 . This does not indicate a range (en dash is used for that), or function as the minus sign (which has its own glyph).
The figure dash is often unavailable; in this case, one may use a hyphen-minus instead. In Unicode, the figure dash is (decimal 8210). HTML authors must use the numeric forms ‒ or ‒ to type it unless the file is in Unicode; there is no equivalent character entity. In TeX, the standard fonts have no figure dash; however, the digits normally all have the same width as the en dash, so an en dash can be substituted in TeX.
En dash
The en dash, or n dash, n-rule, etc., (–) is roughly the width of the letter n. It is half the size of an em dash.
The en dash is used in ranges, such as 6–10 years, read as "six to ten years".
Ranges of values
The en dash is commonly used to indicate a closed range (a range with clearly defined and non-infinite upper and lower boundaries) of values, such as those between dates, times, or numbers.
Some examples of this usage:
- June – July 1967
- 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
- For ages 3–5
- pp. 38–55
- President Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
The Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI) recommends that the word to be used instead of an en dash when a number range might be misconstrued as subtraction, such as a range of units. For example, "a voltage of 50 V to 100 V" rather than "a voltage of 50 – 100 V".
It is also considered inappropriate to use the en dash in place of the words to and and in phrases that follow the forms from ... to ... and between ... and ....
Relationships and connections
The en dash can also be used to contrast values, or illustrate a relationship between two things.
