En Dashes

What is an En Dash?

En dashes are used to help writers clarify meaning, connect related ideas, or indicate ranges of numbers, and is often used to abbreviate.

Where Did En Dashes Come From?

The dash comes from typography—the work of setting, arranging, and printing types. An en dash is a dash that is the width of an “N.” (Reference 4) Attributed to 12th century Boncompagno da Signa, the dash was originally meant to act as the full stop, what we now use as the period. It wasn’t until Johannes Gutenberg’s bible that the dash gained a slight curve and became the comma. The rest of the dash’s history is murky at best. (Reference 3)

 

How Do You Use an En Dash?

Some Good Rules to Follow:

  1. Don’t use an en dash when a hyphen is required.

When to Use En Dashes:

To indicate spans of time, a range of values, scores, and directions

An en dash should be used when writing numbers that are ranges or spans of time.

To Join Two Complex Compound Adjectives

An en dash should be used when one of the elements in a compound adjective is an open compound (made up of two words with a space between them). (Reference 4)

To Connect Two Hyphenated Words

An en dash can provide clarity when connecting two hyphenated words.

To Connect Two Groups Together That Have Equal Value

An en dash can be used when bringing together two groups who hold the same status or ownership. (Reference 1)

To Replace the Words To, And, or Versus

Use an en dash instead of words like to or versus. *Note: If using the word from, then keep the word to.

References

  1. “En Dash (En Rule).” Grammarist, Accessed May 11, 2021. https://grammarist.com/grammar/en-dash/

  2. “Semicolons, Colons and Dashes.” The Writing Center The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Accessed May 10, 2021. https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/semi-colons-colons-and-dashes/

  3. Houston, Keith, “The Mysterious Origins of Punctuation,” BBC, September 2, 2015. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150902-the-mysterious-origins-of-punctuation

  4. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/en-dash/#:~:text=An%20en%20dash%20should%20be,is%20a%20capitalized%20proper%20noun

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This page was published August 30, 2023.