How to Use En Dashes
En dashes are probably the most misused and misunderstood punctuation mark. They are longer than a hyphen yet shorter than an em dash and they really only serve one purpose: to indicate a period of time. While their use may seem subtle, using them correctly can show an acute awareness of how visual use of punctuation affects how people read information.
Terms You Need to Know to Use En Dashes
“EN”: The “en” dash is a bit mysterious in it’s naming, but you’ll want to read the description of the “em” dash to make a comparison. While this isn’t entirely accurate, many designers and publishers would tell you that the “en” is a unit of measurement defined by the width of the capital ‘N’ in a given font. In most cases, the length of the en dash is very close to that length, so it’s a good rule of thumb (and fairly easy to remember.) The reality is, en dashes change in size by typeface and there is no specific length of an en dash, though it is typically around half the length of an em dash but longer than a hyphen.
1 Way to Use En Dashes
- Indicate a Period of Time
1. Indicate a Period of Time
DESCRIPTION
En dashes are basically used as a visual shortcut, a desktop publishing trick to replace the words “to” and/or “through” when talking about a period of time.
APPLICATION
To insert an en dash, simply place the dash between two periods time in place of the word “to” or “through.”
NOTE: An en dash is not a hyphen. To insert an en dash in MS Word, you must
- Type a word or number
- Type a space
- Type a hyphen
- Type another space
- Type a word or number
- Press the space bar
- Delete the extra spaces if your style guide requires it
If you’re using a program in Windows other than Word, you can also type Alt + 0150 to type an en dash.
EXAMPLE
- Penelope played nothing but golf and pickleball from 2010–2013 until she discovered newfound joy in croquet.
- (In this sentence, the dash replaces the word “to,” the word we actually say out loud when reading this sentence. Using the word “to” would also be correct. Some style guides require that you include a space before and after the dash.)
Many of our contributors use the en dash as an informal separator, often in place of a semicolon. It seems to reflect speech patterns to some extent; not a complete break, but more than a comma. It’s incorrect, but quite common.