There are many uses of the en and em dash and also many ways to form these dashes using your computer. The following explanations offer the most common uses and methods for forming these dashes.
En Dash
An en dash, roughly the width of an n, is a little longer than a hyphen. It is used for periods of time when you might otherwise use to.
Examples:
The years 2001–2003
January–June
An en dash is also used in place of a hyphen when combining open compounds.
Examples:
North Carolina–Virginia border a high school–college conference
Most authorities recommend using no spaces before or after en or em dashes. To form an en dash with most PCs, type the first number or word, then hold down the ALT key while typing 0150 on the numerical pad on the right side of your keyboard. Then type the second number or word.
An em-dash is typically used to act as a comma or parenthesis to separate out phrases—or even just a word—in a sentence for various reasons (i.e. an appositive). Examples where an em-dash should be used:
School is based on the three R’s—reading, writing, and ’rithemtic. Against all odds, Pete—the unluckiest man alive—won the lottery. I sense something; a presence I've not felt since—
An en-dash is used to connect values in a range or that are related. A good rule is to use it when you're expressing a "to" relationship. Examples where an en-dash should be used:
in years 1939–1945 pages 31–32 may be relevant New York beat Los Angeles 98–95 Olivia Newton–John
En dash
The en dash, n dash, n-rule, or "nut" (–) is traditionally half the width of an em dash.[5][6] In modern fonts, the length of the en dash is not standardized, and the en dash is often more than half the width of the em dash.[7] The widths of en and em dashes have also been specified as being equal to those of the upper-case letters N and M respectively,[8][9] and at other times to the widths of the lower-case letters.[7][10]
The en-dash (–) is one of the two types of dashes used in punctuation, the other being the em-dash (—). The en-dash is wider than a hyphen, but more narrow than an em-dash. The name comes from the dash being as wide as the letter ‘n’, hence the en-dash. An example of the en-dash is provided below:
Jack doesn’t find Sarah attractive – or so he says.
All politicians desire respect and power – some even achieve it – but it is easier said than done.
Like the em-dash, the en-dash is used to separate a sentence where there is an interruption that disrupts the flow.
Spacing and the en-dash
One rule that specifically applies to the en-dash is spacing. An en-dash should have a space on either side. The opposite applies to the em-dash, which should have no spacing on either side.
Should I use the en-dash?
As with many things, opinion is split between the em-dash and the en-dash. The en-dash has become more popular over the years, where traditionally the em-dash was the most common. People tend to prefer the en-dash is it looks cleaner and less heavy in comparison to the em-dash. Look at them together below to choose for yourself:
en-dash: By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity – another man’s, I mean.
em-dash: By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity—another man’s, I mean.
Finding the en-dash on the keyboard
Only the hyphen appears on keyboards as default. As a result, a lot of people mistakenly use the hyphen instead. Some people use two hyphens to approximate a dash (–).
On the PC, you can get an en-dash by holding down the ALT key and pressing 0150 on the numeric keypad. Please note – this only works using the numbers on the numeric keypad on the right of your keyboard, not with the number keys above the letters.
On the Mac, you can get the en-dash by pressing the option and dash keys simultaneously.
The HTML value – can be used to add the en-dash to websites.
Microsoft Word automatically converts two hyphens into an em-dash (not an en-dash) when you start typing when typed between two words, but to get an en-dash you need to go to insert>symbol> and select either the en-dash or em-dash from the list of symbols.
