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.