How To Use Hyphens And Dashes

If you re not sure whether a compound word has a hyphen or not check your preferred dictionary.

How to use hyphens and dashes. Let us see how to use these hyphens and dashes when typing documents in word. Dashes can be used to create emphasis in a sentence. For pc laptop since you don t have a numeric pad you ll have to use the special symbols menu of your word processor. Like the hyphen there should never be a space between the en dash and its adjacent content. Hyphens are shorter lines.

These are known as compound words. It s also important to distinguish between dashes and hyphens. A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of text not at the bottom. When typing em dashes always put a space before and after the dash. A hyphen is a punctuation mark that s used to join words or parts of words.

Dashes separate information and are a type of parenthesis like brackets. Dashes are used to separate groups of words not to separate parts of words like a hyphen does. When should you use a hyphen. Hyphens are shorter than dashes and link two words so the word or phrase makes sense. For pc type ctrl minus.

They are used to make a connection between two words working as a unit or when two words have a combined meaning. Hyphens are not the same as dashes. To insert an en dash. Keyboard shortcuts for hyphens and dashes as you can see in the symbol dialog you can type hyphens and dashes using keyboard shortcuts. Num indicates you should use the keys from the number pad after enabling number lock on your keyboard.

Examples include mother in law or pick me up. Use a hyphen in a compound modifier when the modifier comes before the word it s modifying. It s not interchangeable with other types of dashes. They are most often used to show connections between words that are working as a unit for example you might see adjectives like well intentioned or to spell certain words like e mail. For mac press option hyphen key.