When to Use the Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen — And Which Punctuation Mark Is Our Favorite

“What’s your favorite punctuation mark?” is my new favorite conversation starter.

Trust me, it’s a real hit at parties. Really gets people out of their shells.

I’ll go first…

The em dash! 

That’s this one, if you didn’t know: —

Not to be confused with the en dash, which is this: –

See how the en dash is shorter? It’s the length of the letter N (whereas the em dash is the length of the letter M. Makes sense, doesn’t it?).

And neither of these dashes should be confused with the even shorter hyphen, which is this: –

You might not think there’s a big difference among these three little lines, but there is. At least to grammar nerds like me.

Here’s When to Use Each Punctuation Mark

Em Dash (—)

Use an em dash (—) to mark a break in a sentence, add a dramatic effect, or set off extra information. 

It can function like a comma, colon, semicolon, or parentheses.

• “Our audience survey — which, by the way, expires tonight — is the best way you can help Quotable Copy improve our content.”

En Dash (–)

Use an en dash (–) to indicate a connection between numbers, dates, places, etc.

It can function like the word “to.”

• “The survey should take you only 1–3 minutes to complete.”

Hyphen (-)

Use a hyphen (–) to join words (or parts of words) together. 

• “Will you pretty-please take this year-end survey?”

Keyboard Shortcuts for Punctuation Marks

Not sure how to create these punctuation marks (without copying and pasting from Google)?

• On most keyboards, the hyphen key is just to the right of the numeral 0.
• To make an em dash on a Mac, hit Option + Shift + hyphen key.
• To make an en dash on a Mac, hit Option + hyphen key.
• To make an em or en dash on another computer… I don’t know; Google it.

Bottom line: If you want to break up your writing — as I’m doing here — use an em dash. Otherwise, use an en dash or hyphen.

Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? 

If so, you are my people. And I want to know what it is — let us know!

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