When to Use Em Dash and En Dash and 3-Em Dash
If you want to master some of the more cryptic elements of grammar, we’ll have to talk about the dash – yes, those simple horizontal lines that seem to appear without warning, just to stretch your prose further down the page. Did you know that there are three – yes, three whole dashes – in the English language, and that the em dash, in particular, is historically associated with violent controversies between ardent supporters and detractors?
Let’s talk about the three dashes and how to use them.
How to use em dash
There is no better place to start than an em dash. The most commonly used type of dash – I’m shamelessly demonstrating its effectiveness right now – usually replaces commas or parentheses. More authoritatively, the grammarian puts it this way :
An em dash separates bracketed phrases or sentences in a sentence. In this case, the em dash is similar to commas and parentheses, but there are subtle differences ….
An em dash is often used to cram a related thought into the middle of a full sentence. You use an em dash if the comma would otherwise make your sentence more awkward and if the parentheses seem redundant.
Here are some examples of how this actually works, courtesy of Grammarly:
- When I was shopping – or rather, wandering aimlessly down the aisles – I bumped into our old neighbor.
- Recently, there has been an increase – although many people have fiercely opposed – the practice of alternative education.
- Question words – who, what, when, where, why and how – are used to find information in English.
But the em dash is even more versatile. You might want to use it when you need to signal an abrupt change in tone, or when you want to highlight certain information in a sentence.
Here, the University of Houston Victoria provides an example of how an em dash can indicate a sudden change in tone:
- I really don’t want to stay at Aunt Susan’s house – you know how messy she is – because she always wants me to help clean the house.
- “I just want to say I don’t deserve …” Bonnie ran away as quickly as she could before Jason could finish his statement.
When it comes to emphasizing a certain point or thought for dramatic effect, it is usually done at the end of a sentence. Another example courtesy of UHV:
- Some small businesses will get through this difficult time, but most will not.
To use one on the keyboard, you can simply concatenate the two dashes (-) together. To create a real keyboard em dash you need to understand a few simple keyboard shortcuts, but there are many resources to help you with that .
N-dash
If an em dash is giving you a headache, rest assured – an em dash is much easier. An en dash is shorter and is usually used to tie things related to distance. They are similar – but still different – to hyphens, although outside of formal context they are largely interchangeable.
As the Chicago Style Guide explains :
An en dash connects things that are related to each other by distance, as in the magazine’s May-September issue; it is not May-September, because June, July and August are supposedly also included in this range. In fact, hyphens define any kind of range, so they appear correctly in indexes when citing a range of pages (eg 147-48).
An en dash is also used to prefix or suffix a compound word, such as “Cajun-style cooking” or “post-Soviet society.” It also works for times such as 3–16 hours. However, you can almost always avoid using a hyphen instead of an en dash, given that the difference in their size is barely noticeable. Although there is no direct key for en dash either, it is easy enough to learn the shortcuts.
3 meter dash
Are you saying that this is an incomprehensible feature? The three-dimensional dash is commonly used in legal or other classified documents where certain names or details must be omitted. The string is intentionally intended to hide certain things, for example, so that the identity of people is protected.
As UHV writes, “you can use six hyphens or use an underscore” to create a three-digit dash. Three em dashes are also appropriate, as the name suggests. Here’s an example, again provided by the university:
The trial between ——— and ——— will begin tomorrow at about 14:00.
If you were previously confused about the use of these strings on a page, consider that you are now well aware of everything dash-related.