PUNCTUATION

Dash
And
Hyphen
The Dash and The Hyphen
• The look almost the same, but do completely
different things
• Dash — (a little longer)
• Hyphen - (a little shorter)
The Dash —
• Rule 1
• A detour or interrupter
• Can be used in place of a colon
• Remember, you need an independent clause
before the dash

• It was my worst nightmare — cold pizza.

The Dash —
• Rule 2
• Used instead of parentheses to enclose an aside.
• Aside = A diversion

• His new car was amazing — it was a 2010

Lamborghini — but he could never drive it
outside.
The Dash —
• If your keyboard does not have the Dash symbol,
use TWO HYPHENS - -

• Use no more than 2 per sentence

The Hyphen -
• Rule 1
• Separates individual words or parts of words.
• Mother-in-law
• two-thirds
• Self-confident
• Ex-president
• Three-quarters
Hyphen -
• Which words get hyphens are which do not

• If the word pair comes before a noun, use a

hyphen to combine the words

• He is a strong-willed father.
• Those are water-resistant ducks.
• I have a red-haired cousin.
Hyphen -
• Always use a hyphen when one of the words is
self, quasi, ex, like, and fractions
• *Quasi = resembling

• He is self-confident.
• She is our quasi-official leader.
• He is the ex-president.
• His helmet is shell-like.
• He ate two-thirds of the pie.