8. Hyphen (-) / Dash (–)

Hyphen (-)

A hyphen  is a punctuation mark in the form of a dash. It is used to join two or more words to form compound words , most common of which are compound nouns.

Hyphen forming compound words.

Examples:

  • Many tourists visit the open-air  market at the weekends.
  • At least a thousand people attended the political fund-raising  dinner.
  • There is a fast-flowing  stream in the valley below.

Hyphen are often used in fractions and compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine.

Examples:

  • Rent costs almost  two-thirds of  his paycheck.
  • She once drove in the opposite direction in a one-way  street.
  • A four-lane  highway is built to connect the two cities.
  • Construction of a twenty-storey  building is underway in the city centre.

Hyphens are used to separate prefixes from words

Examples:

  • She is still trying to get back all the money she lent to her ex-husband .
  • Scores of anti-war  protesters gathered to disrupt his speech.
  • Can I write you a post-dated  cheque?

Hyphen is used for a word break at the end of a line

The newspaper reported that the town was hit by a tornado last evening.

Hyphens used to avoid confusion.

Examples:

  • The new owner has decided to re-form the club.
    (Without the hyphen, the word reform  would give the sentence a different meaning.)
  • They are going to re-mark the papers due to the record high number of passes.
    (Without the hyphen, the word remark has got a different meaning.)

Dash (–)

A dash  is double the length of a hyphen. It is sometimes used instead of a colon  or a semi-colon .

Examples:

  • "Quick! Go now – the police are coming for you!  
  • Do we have all the things – the rods, plastic worms, extra hooks, net, knife, first-aid kit, and what else? Â

When dashes  are used in a sentence, commas  are not used to separate interrupting phrases.

Examples:

  • No : She looked at the dresses, –  a few of them ,  –  deciding on the one she should buy.
  • Yes : She looked at the dresses –  a few of them –  deciding on the one she should buy.

A dash used to show a sudden deviation or emphasis.

Examples:

  • I met Tom–you know, the guy I introduced you last week–to ask if he would bowling with us this evening.
  • I saw a snake – I mean a really big one – swallowing a big rodent. Â