Dashes—how to use them

As writers and designers with a keen interest in letters and grammar, it’s a really interesting shift to see, and one that we’re not 100% against, as we’ll explain. What’s important, however, is that people use them correctly. Afterall, ChatGPT is famously unreliable, regularly and routinely getting things wrong all the time. Take the power away from machine and make sure you know how to use them, and typeset with them, yourself! ⁠

Em-dashes (—) can tell you a lot. For one, they can tell you that the guy you’ve been seeing has used ChatGPT to write his break up message, because they’ve never once used an em-dash before. That is, sadly, based on a true story.
They’re becoming more and more prevalent due to the wide-spread use of ChatGPT which, as a writer, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the reason ChatGPT uses the latter is because, technically, it’s completely correct. The problem is that over the past few decades, and with people generally writing less, our collective grammar has somewhat side-lined the plethora of different dashes available to us, which is a shame, because they’re great things, and different dashes have different distinct uses.

The Hyphen (-)

The hyphen, often incorrectly used in place of all other dashes, is the joiner. It connects words that want to be one, for example, well-known, two-year plan, or type-led. It helps avoid ambiguity. A hyphen lets you know that a small-business owner is the owner of a small business, and not a person who owns a business and is small. Typographically speaking, a hyphen must never be used with space either side of it.

The Em-dash (—)

Em-dashes are used to create a break in a sentence or to connect two parts of a sentence—in doing so, this tonally feels stronger than a comma, and creates a flow rather than ending one sentence and starting another. There is no space either side of an em dash. It directly connects to the words it falls between.

The En-Dash (–)

The en-dash is specifically used for spans between factors, indicating ranges and relationships, such as time, date or location. For example, 1998–2003, pages 12–18, the London–Edinburgh train. In these cases, when an en dash is used to connect to things in a range of values, then no space is needed either side.

Stylistically, however, it’s often used in place of an em-dash (“They are children – they wouldn’t hurt a fly”). If this is how an en-dash is used, then a space must be used either side of the mark. Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to one’s writing style and can be quite aesthetically driven. For instance, some editorial platforms, like It’s Nice That, opt for en-dashes rather than em-dashes, as it’s more pleasing to the eye – it certainly feels less aggressive. ⁠

The comma (Bonus)

Whilst we’re on the subject of grammar, let’s quickly explain the Oxford comma too. The Oxford comma is the comma before “and” in a list. “Apples, pears, and oranges.” Again, its use comes down to taste and style, for some writing guidelines it’s mandatory, for others, optional. Personally, I feel it makes sense, because it creates a better pacing when reading – or announcing – lists. Similarly, it can make things more clear. If you were to read these two sentences, one would be more surprising than the next…

“I’d like to thank my parents, Beyoncé, and Nietzsche.”

“I’d like to thank my parents, Beyoncé and Nietzsche.”