{"id":1859,"date":"2015-04-14T15:40:06","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1859"},"modified":"2021-05-21T16:23:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T21:23:24","slug":"the-elusive-en-dash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/adjectives-adverbs\/the-elusive-en-dash\/","title":{"rendered":"En Dash: What Is an En Dash?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a compound adjective precedes a noun it is describing, we often need a hyphen: prize-winning recipe<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>twentieth-century literature<\/em>. If a compound adjective comprises more than two words, we use as many hyphens as are needed:\u00a0a three-day-old newspaper<\/em>, a long-in-the-tooth baseball manager<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Try however to punctuate the compound adjectives including proper nouns in these phrases: a New York based artist<\/em>, a Charles Dickens inspired author<\/em>, a post World War II novel<\/em>. Most writers would tend to avoid \u201cNew-York-based artist,\u201d \u201cCharles-Dickens-inspired author,\u201d and \u201cpost-World-War-II novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyphenating open compounds such as New York,<\/em>\u00a0Charles Dickens<\/em>, and\u00a0World War II<\/em> looks and feels cumbersome. To maintain the integrity of the proper noun in a compound adjective, most of us would write\u00a0New York-based artist<\/em>, Charles Dickens-inspired author,<\/em> and post-World War II novel<\/em>.<\/p>\n

En Dash: Origin and Application<\/h2>\n

Some time ago, publishers decided that a hyphen was insufficient in joining open compounds to other words in a compound adjective. They replaced the hyphen with the en dash, which is longer than a hyphen but shorter than an em (long) dash.<\/p>\n

Examples
\n<\/strong><\/em>New York\u2013based artist
\nCharles Dickens\u2013inspired author
\npost\u2013World War II novel<\/em><\/p>\n

Most books and many magazines would apply the en dash rather than the hyphen in those examples.<\/p>\n

Another common use for the en dash is connecting inclusive or continuous numbers, dates, and times in a range.<\/p>\n

Examples
\n<\/strong><\/em>pages 224\u2013345
\n1969\u20131975
\n9:00 a.m.\u20131:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t see the en dash in most daily newspapers, which tend to use the hyphen for punctuating open compounds. Many modern reference books and style guides give short shrift to the en dash as well. Neither H.W. Fowler\u2019s Modern English Usage <\/em>nor Theodore M. Bernstein\u2019s The Careful Writer <\/em>acknowledges the mark. Wilson Follett\u2019s\u00a0Modern American Usage<\/em> gives the en dash only two sentences and discourages its use.<\/p>\n

Before the age of computers, only professional printers could make en dashes; everyone else had to make do with hyphens. To this day, many people may still be unfamiliar with the mark despite having seen it often in their reading. In truth, the function of the en dash is mainly cosmetic. It resolves no ambiguities and clears no confusion. It does nothing that a hyphen cannot other than look more symmetrical in certain contexts and constructions.<\/p>\n

En Dash: How to Make One<\/h2>\n

If you are a writer who favors the look and precision of the en dash where it can function, you have a few ways you can enter it into your document on a PC. The first is to click on the Insert tab on your word-processing menu and then click on Symbol. You will find a menu of different symbols and special characters for multiple fonts. Simply locate the en dash within the font you are using.<\/p>\n

A second method is to hold down CTRL + num lock + hyphen (-) at the same time. Still another way is to press ALT and type 0150 simultaneously.<\/p>\n

If you use a Mac, hold down the Option key and type the minus sign located at the top of the keyboard.<\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

Drawing from what we’ve discussed about hyphens and the en dash, supply the correct punctuation in the following sentences.<\/p>\n

1. Toby is a four year old terrier.
\n2. The apartment featured a bowling alley length hallway.
\n3. It was a\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u00a0inspired fantasy.
\n4. The dessert had an ice cream like texture.
\n5. My terrier is four years old.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Toby is a four-year-old terrier. (two hyphens)<\/p>\n

2. The apartment featured a bowling alley-length hallway.
\n(OR<\/strong>\u00a0bowling alley\u2013length\u00a0OR<\/strong>\u00a0bowling-alley-length)<\/p>\n

3. It was a\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>-inspired fantasy.
\n(OR<\/strong>\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>\u2013inspired)<\/p>\n

4. The dessert had an ice cream-like texture.
\n(OR<\/strong>\u00a0ice cream\u2013like\u00a0OR<\/strong>\u00a0ice-cream-like)<\/p>\n

5. My terrier is four years old. (CORRECT<\/strong>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a compound adjective precedes a noun it is describing, we often need a hyphen: prize-winning recipe,\u00a0twentieth-century literature. If a compound adjective comprises more than two words, we use as many hyphens as are needed:\u00a0a three-day-old newspaper, a long-in-the-tooth baseball manager. Try however to punctuate the compound adjectives including proper nouns in these phrases: a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,38,35,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives-adverbs","category-dashes","category-hyphens","category-prefixes-and-suffixes"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1859"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4878,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1859\/revisions\/4878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}