Hurricane Advice

[BantyChooks]

As long as it doesn't quiz me about damn dashes at the end of the book I could probably read it.

No. It's MUCH worse.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

"The Development and History of the English Language"

Would that be American English language or British English language and from what period to when and does it include slang?

 

[Kiki]

No, I finished re-reading that one last week. It's called "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".

I have it.
I need to blow the dust off of it.

 

[rjohns39]

I did. I gave you links like the one below that explain it beautifully.
http://www.taddlecreekmag.com/ode-to-the-en-dash

Nice read. Thanks.

 

[Kiki]

Since our teacher is mean and wants us all to read on our own.
I will share the cliff notes here:

em dash

The em dash’s use is not dissimilar to that of parentheses or the comma. It is often found in pairs—setting off a parenthetical statement, such as this—or on its own, indicating a sudden break in a sentence.


en dash

In between these two powerhouses of punctuation, longer than the hyphen but shorter than the em, is the en dash, also with two main functions. First and foremost, the en dash is used to express a range, usually a numerical one (such as “pages 4–10” or “January 12–22,”), the idea being that, where a hyphen is used to separate numbers, an en dash is used to join them. But it is the en dash’s second use that is truly fascinating. The en dash may also be used in place of a hyphen to connect a prefix or suffix to an open compound (“post–Second World War” or “New York–based”), to connect two open compounds (“the Bloor Street–Danforth Avenue subway line”), or to connect two hyphenated compounds (“a quasi-good–quasi-evil plan”).

 

[Kiki]

hyphen -
joins two words and phone numbers

dash aka em dash ---
sudden break in a sentence

en dash --
express a range (think page numbers)
AND
connect a prefix or suffix to an open compound

 

[Chickassan]

Y'all still going on about that line thing? Pardon me, line -thing.

 

[Kiki]

Just use 3 hyphens every time and you should be ok.

 

[Kiki]

Y'all still going on about that line thing? Pardon me, line -thing.

dash!

en and em

 

[rjohns39]

That's all well and good—but keyboard commands are a pain.