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I'm wondering why there are three different sizes (perhaps more?) for lines that separate characters? I understand the grammatical usage (or rather, I could look it up), but the benefit to readers is not clear to me.

doub1ejack
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    You should ask @tchrist. – Robusto Mar 09 '15 at 17:01
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    Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2116/when-should-i-use-an-em-dash-an-en-dash-and-a-hyphen – Sandeep Chatterjee Mar 09 '15 at 17:03
  • Specifically, the answer here: http://english.stackexchange.com/a/2126/111918 --- em-dash separates clauses, en-dash indicates a range, and hyphen joins to words to create a compound. The usage difference is the benefit to the reader. – Ian MacDonald Mar 09 '15 at 17:21
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    I think OP's question is not, "what are each of them for", but why does it make a difference? I.e., if everyone used a hyphen for everything, what confusion would it cause? – Jim Mar 09 '15 at 17:23
  • Unfortunately I don't think this is a question about the English language- I think these characters are used in other languages besides English. – Jim Mar 09 '15 at 17:25
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    We've been here before. Since the lengths of these things differ with fonts (and some people still do real writing), real benefits are dubious when you get beyond the short one and the long one. In addition, usage is recommended by style guides rather than mandated by the Academy. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 09 '15 at 17:26
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about the English language specifically. – Jim Mar 09 '15 at 17:27
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    Back when printers were the only ones to typeset books, they could afford to fiddle with various differently sizes dashes to make things look good. And clearly, you want a longer dash to separate phrases than to separate pieces of a hyphenated word. Otherwise, it's hard to read sentences like Let's ban non-members-they might reveal the secret rites, and then everybody will laugh at us. – Peter Shor Mar 09 '15 at 17:39
  • @Jim, I'd advocate leaving this question open. Closing all questions that apply exclusively to the English Language would significantly decrease the usefulness of this site. For example, english.so has already adopted the [hyphen] and [dash] tags, so by your reasoning, 400+ existing questions should be closed. – doub1ejack Mar 09 '15 at 17:41
  • @doub1ejack The question should be closed as a duplicate. The distinct usages listed in the answers to the original are, as Ian MacDonald comments above, arguments in favour of having different forms of punctuation. How good the system is is POB. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 09 '15 at 19:30
  • @EdwinAshworth I saw that answer before I asked my question and it did not answer my question. It explains how/when to use these, but it did not explain what the intended benefit was. Ian McDonald's answer approaches this from the direction I was looking for. – doub1ejack Mar 09 '15 at 20:57
  • The distinct usages listed in the answers to the original are, as Ian MacDonald comments above, arguments in favour of having different forms of punctuation. Your question reduces to something similar to 'What are the benefits in having different words?' or 'Why have question marks as well as full stops?' – Edwin Ashworth Mar 09 '15 at 21:51

1 Answers1

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hyphen "The short one"
Its diminutive size helps the reader to read the two words as a single word. Ideally, this would be visually invisible and the two words would be directly joined, but grammar rules don't agree.

en-dash "The mid-sized one"
The difference in appearance is important in order to signal to the reader that it should not be interpreted as a compound word.

em-dash "The long one"
The length of this dash is so significant that it causes a mental pause similar to a semi-colon.

If your reader can infer the meaning of the character from the context of the sentence, it is acceptable to simply use a hyphen in all of these cases. The acceptability here is strictly a reader-perception measure and not at all grammar-related. If you are writing a piece that requires strict adherence to a style guide, you should follow that.

On a personal note, I find that a trailing space is usually required when using a hyphen in place of an em-dash.

Fun side note: en-dash and em-dash are named after the glyphs to which their lengths should match. You can use this to help you remember which one is longer: an n is shorter than an m.

Ian MacDonald
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