How To Use Dashes Examples

Dashes can be used to create emphasis in a sentence.

How to use dashes examples. Use dashes to set off appositives that contain commas. The name em indicates that the dash is roughly the size of the letter m. You can sometimes use a dash to help readers see that certain words are meant as an introduction or conclusion to your sentence. After a split second of hesitation the second baseman leaped for the ball or rather limped for it. Joe a student who is also an athlete actor and writing coach does not have enough time to join the committee.

Dashes can be used to add parenthetical statements or comments in much the same way as you would use brackets. Examples include mother in law or pick me up. They are used to make a connection between two words working as a unit or when two words have a combined meaning. If you are looking to use a two word phrase as a descriptor or modifier you can use an en dash. Examples include conflicting sides of an argument democrat republican debate connecting a prefix or suffix to an unhyphenated compound post civil war new york based and directional references los angeles san diego bus east west highway.

A dash can be used to insert a break in a sentence to replace. Rather than placing parentheses around a phrase within a statement writers can opt to surround the phrase with an em dash on either end. For instance em dashes can replace parentheses at the end of a sentence or when multiple commas appear in a parenthetical phrase. It is used in the same manner as a parenthetical expression. En dashes are also used to represent a conflict connection or direction between two words or compounds.

Books paper pencils many students lacked even the simplest tools for learning in nineteenth century america. Hyphens are not the same as dashes. Here a dash is used in place of brackets. Dashes can also be used to show repetition of a word or phrase for effect and to separate repetitive phrases. Along with its use in place of brackets and colons a dash can be used when writing dialogue for example to show that someone speaking has been interrupted.

In other words if you are renaming a nearby noun with something that contains commas use dashes to set if off. Em dashes save the day when other punctuation would be awkward. For more on using commas for appositives see commas eg. These are known as compound words. A colon e g it depends on one thing trust a semicolon e g it depends on trust it always has three dots used as a pause for effect e g it needed trust.