When to use - ; – ; or —

It's important to know how to use hyphens, en dashes and em dashes correctly.

A hyphen is used to separate two words that go together, such as in a compound adjective. For example:

The green-eyed gentleman.

An en dash should be used between the ends of a range, such as those of numbers or time periods. For example:

Page numbers 110–150.

An en dash can be entered with the alt code 0150.

An em dash is used in place of commas or parentheses to set a phrase apart from the rest of a sentence. For example: The partners—David and Alice—went to court.

An em dash can be entered with the alt code 0151. An en dash is half of the length of an em dash.