Forum Lesson #1: The en and em of it

Welcome to our first installment of Forum Lessons!

While we have some great general lessons available in the Resources section of the Gengo website, these Forum Lessons are tailored specifically to the DE>EN language pair and will cover a range of topics, from common punctuation and translation errors to language-specific online resources. We hope you enjoy this first post and feel inspired to leave a comment or start a discussion of your very own! So now, without further ado, on to today’s topic…

The en and em of it

We see them all the time; a – here, a — there; they’re everywhere! But what exactly are en-dashes and em-dashes and how should they be used? It's quite simple really!

An en-dash is roughly the width of the letter ‘n’ (hence its name) and is predominantly used as a substitute for “to”.  For example:

The years 2001–2003

July–October 2010

1993–99

This is not to be confused with the underappreciated em-dash. (You guessed it, it’s the width of the letter ‘m’!)

To dispel a few common misconceptions, an em-dash is not preceded or followed by a space, it is longer than both a hyphen and the en-dash, and it can sometimes be used to replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses as well as to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought. Here are some examples of how to use em-dashes correctly:

Sometimes writing for money—rather than for art or pleasure—is really quite enjoyable.

Please call my agent—Jessica Cohen—about hiring me.

I wish you would—oh, never mind.

Hunter strode into the room—was he mad?—and the family stopped and stared.

My agreement with Fiona is clear—she teaches me French and I teach her German.

As you can see, em-dashes are quite versatile and even fun! 

Stay tuned for our next installment of Forum Lessons…!