Is it correct to use dash ... dash here?

Question

I'm having a sentence:

The largest rocket ever built - the Saturn V, which launched the first space station and sent astronauts to the Moon ... remains the most powerful vehicle in history.

I wonder whether it is correct to put another dash in the blank. Thank you!

You want an "em-dash". On a typewriter this is two regular dashes/hyphens, but if typesetting there is a special character for it. — Hot Licks, Apr 01 '20 at 14:50
So I mean is it okay to put another dash after the word Moon? — Viết Duy Phạm, Apr 01 '20 at 14:52
Yes, since "the Saturn ... moon" is a "parenthetical phrase" it should have the same separators on both ends, be they parentheses, commas, or dashes. — Hot Licks, Apr 01 '20 at 14:59
If you used one before, you need to use one after the parenthetical. What you've used looks like a hyphen (shorter than either the en-dash or the em-dash). Hot Licks would use two unspaced em-dashes. His choice; not incorrect. I'd use two spaced en-dashes. Equally correct. — Edwin Ashworth, Apr 01 '20 at 14:59
MS Word 3-key trick to produce the em-dash: Ctl + Alt + minus sign on the number pad. — Yosef Baskin, Apr 01 '20 at 15:18

Charlie Bernstein · Answer 1 · 2020-04-01T16:40:39.693

The short answer is yes.

If one end of a bracketed phrase inside a sentence starts with a dash, then it has to end with a dash, too, but if the phrase is at the start or end of a sentence, then use just one dash (or whatever bracketing symbol you're using—like these parentheses and this dash and comma, for instance).

But in that sentence, I'd use commas, not dashes. It'll read faster that way.

And yes, as mentioned above, use em dashes. If your keyboard doesn't make them, use two short dashes with no space between.

PS:

You're not having a sentence. You might be having a baby, an idea, lunch, or a brain cramp, but you're not having a sentence. You have a sentence.

Unless you are an Indian - then you might be "having" all kinds of things. And Indian English is no more idiosyncratic than the version that you speak. — WS2, Apr 01 '20 at 16:54

Is it correct to use dash ... dash here?

1 Answers1