Dash and Hyphen

Two commonly confused marks of punctuation are the dash and the hyphen, confused because they both require the use of the same key stroke.

The dash: A dash is a longer mark, created by typing two hyphens (-) with no space between them,

e.g. I would like to eat something luscious—something like a Napoleon pastry.

The dash is a mark of punctuation that shows emphasis. Writers use it in place of a comma when they want to emphasize a modifier or an appositive. Another example is thus: When we walked in the evening light—a golden light—we saw the world beautiful and sparkling.

Notice that there is no space on either side of the dash. That enables your software to convert the two hyphens into one dash by joining them.

A common grammatical error in using the dash: The dash can't connect two independent clauses. Only a semicolon can. If you try to connect two independent clauses with a dash, you'll create a run-on sentence, e.g. He left the table without having placed his books on it—he hadn't wanted to get them dirty.

The hyphen: A hyphen brings together a double-word modifier. It also requires that you do not use any spaces around the mark of punctuation, e.g. I would like to wear a orange-yellow dress to the party.

Notice that because there are two modifiers for one noun (dress), they have to be joined by a hyphen.

Another example is thus: As a European-American woman, I'm aware that I have more access to privileges of the US society than my African-American friend.

Notice that in both double-word modifiers, the writer uses the hyphen.