
In place of parenthesesĮm dashes are also used as interruptors in sentences, mostly in blogs and digital content. This can either soften the sentence or add color, as in this example from The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson: “Each person is born to one possession which out-values all his others -his last breath.” 2. It can also replace a colon when introducing phrases, clauses, or examples. Here’s an older example from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: “Well, nobody could think of anything to do -everybody was stumped, and set still.” People use it instead of a semicolon more often these days because it can provide a more casual tone and look. The em dash can join two independent clauses in place of a semicolon.

The name comes from typography-the work of setting, arranging, and printing types. It’s also the longest of the dashes (e.g., hyphen, en dash). Or, it can signal an interruption (see our article on interrupting sentences for more on that!) or amplification (“expanding”) of an idea.

The em dash ( -) sets off a word or clause and adds emphasis. That’s because it has many ways-and is even favored by famous rule-breakers. Noting that people have proclaimed their love of this punctuation mark with em dash tattoos, the New York Times called it “the bad boy, or cool girl, of punctuation. The em dash has a fan club of sorts, as writers love to debate its many uses (and possible overuses). Choose Symbol from the Insert menu, click the Special Characters tab, highlight the em dash, and click Insert.The em dash is an incredibly versatile punctuation mark that can be used instead of parentheses, commas, colons, or quotation marks in a sentence.Hold down the key and type 0151 on the numeric keypad.You must use the minus sign (-) on the numeric keypad if you use the hyphen character on the alphanumeric keypad, Word will change the cursor. Fortunately, there are three easy methods: Uncheck the Hyphens ( - ) With ( - ) option.Īfter disabling the AutoCorrect option, you'll have to enter an em dash manually.From the Tools menu, choose AutoCorrect Options.If you find yourself doing this a lot, it might be more efficient to disable the AutoCorrect option and enter an em dash, when you require it, manually. If you occasionally need two hyphens instead of an em dash, you can press +Z and Word will undo the em dash character and restore the hyphens. Now, this default won't work for everyone every single time.
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