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I can't stand it when people misuse the hyphen.
We have three different punctuation symbols
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that looks similar. We have the hyphen, the
En dash, a little longer, and the Em dash,
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longer still. We use the hyphen to connect
words that as an idea are describing something.
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For example, a five-minute break. It's not
a five break, it's not a minute break.
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It's a five-minute break. Use a
hyphen without spaces for five-minute.
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You can use and En dash, that's the next longest
line to show a range of time. For example,
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the event is from 7-10 tonight. Now the em dash,
this is the longest line is used show parenetical
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that's extra information. And it drives me crazy
when people use the hyphen here. For example,
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my dad who is never late, who's over an hour late.
My dad who's, dad who's, that doesn't go together
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in one idea. So we need an Em-dash there. Em
dash doesn't have a space before or after.
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Hyphen, en dash, em dash. Learning how to use
this can make you writing look more sophisticated.
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