There are two types of dashes. One is the “n-dash” (or “en-dash”), which takes up one space, and is most often used to hyphenate words; and the other is the “m-dash” (or "em-dash) which takes up two spaces, and is most often used to bracket off parenthetical information within a sentence, like kind of a lighter weight parentheses. Em-dashes get used a lot in novels and other published writing that is subject to correction from a professional copy editor, but very rarely in the daily typing of regular people. So now when people see it getting used they just assume it must be a clanker.
A slight correction, en-dashes are used mostly to indicate ranges like Mon–Fri. Hyphens are a separate third thing, smaller than an en-dash.
- hyphen
– en-dash
— em-dash
They get their names originally from having the same width as the letter n or m respectively in typesetting (though not all fonts follow that necessarily).
Ok, what the heck is an em-dash?
There are two types of dashes. One is the “n-dash” (or “en-dash”), which takes up one space, and is most often used to hyphenate words; and the other is the “m-dash” (or "em-dash) which takes up two spaces, and is most often used to bracket off parenthetical information within a sentence, like kind of a lighter weight parentheses. Em-dashes get used a lot in novels and other published writing that is subject to correction from a professional copy editor, but very rarely in the daily typing of regular people. So now when people see it getting used they just assume it must be a clanker.
A slight correction, en-dashes are used mostly to indicate ranges like Mon–Fri. Hyphens are a separate third thing, smaller than an en-dash.
- hyphen
– en-dash
— em-dash
They get their names originally from having the same width as the letter n or m respectively in typesetting (though not all fonts follow that necessarily).
Thank you for this!!!
M-dashes are super useful for setting off parentheticals nicely.
Thank you for the synopsis. However;
This is a clanker:
and this is software:
You should be able to figure it out - even if you don’t know what you’re looking for - if you’re sent the proper response ;)
Didn’t even use em dashes lol
Lmao fat-fingered my keeb when typing. Edited my original comment
It’s the tell that someone used an LLM to write the response.
That’s absurd. I’ve long used em dashes in writing. It’s not at all a tell. Plenty of people use them.
Plenty = dozen.
Most just use n-dashes. M-dash doesn’t even exist on most virtual keyboards.
A lot of software will autocorrect two hyphens into an em-dash, but it’s not consistent everywhere.
What is a search engine?