The Amateur Etymologist

Em dash vs En dash

There are several types of dashes in the English. There's the hyphen ( - ), the en dash ( – ) and the em dash ( — ). What's the difference?

The hyphen is the most common dash. Technically, it's not a dash, it's a hyphen, for there is a 'family' of dashes and the hyphen isn't one of them. But for most people, the hyphen is also called a dash. Most people know where and when to use a hyphen. You use it to connect two words to make it into an adjective. You use it to break up a word that is running to the end of the line and you want to write half on the top line and the rest on the next line. You break up the said word at a the end of a syllable and use a hyphen to indicate the rest of the word is on the next line.

What about the en dash? The en dash is so called because traditionally, the width of the dash was the approximately the width of the letter n. The most common use of the en dash is used to indicate a range of numbers like "6–8 years of planning". The en dash can be used for other sets of numbers like date and time. This is easy enough to write on paper, but gets trickier to do with software. Most people simply substitute a hyphen when indicating a range of numbers. If you're picky, on Microsoft Office Word, you can select the Insert menu, then select "Symbol", then select "Special chacters" then pick out the en dash. You can also learn the keyboard shortcut indicated inside this menu and use that the next time.

The em dash is—you guessed it—the width of the letter m. It is used to indicate an interruption in the middle of a sentence (like in the previous sentence) or used to indicate that a sentence has been interrputed and did not end.

For example: I did not say that you could—

Notice that there is no other punctuation mark and that there is no space between could and the em dash. Also, notice that when the em dash is used in a pair for a parenthetical interruption in a sentence, there are no spaces before or after the em dashes. This actually, makes for an interesting auto shortcut in Microsoft Word. To insert an em dash into your sentence, simply type a word, then without inserting any space type two consective hyphens, then the next word and then finally add a space and you will see Word convert the two hyphens into em dashes.

For example type this: is--you guessed 

And Word will convert it to the following when you hit the spacebar after the letter u: is—you guessed 

Isn't that a neat trick?

I.e. vs E.g.

This is a simple one. I.e. is Latin for id est, which in English means, "that is". E.g. is exempli gratia, which means "for example". The two clearly don't mean the same thing. I.e. is not a substitute for e.g.

Example: There are many types of caffeine-laden soft drinks, e.g., Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.

Example: The delivery service is available only on weekdays, i.e., from Monday to Friday.

When you use either short form in speech, you don't say the letters. You say the English phrase. So for the first example, when you say it out loud, you say, "There are many types of caffeine-laden soft drinks, for example, Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper." You don't ever say, "EEE-GEE."

Similarly, for the second sentence, you say, "The delivery service is available only on weekdays, that is, from Monday to Friday." You don't ever say, "I-EEE."

Please also note the punctuation marks in both short forms. It has a period after each letter: e.g. When you use it in a sentence, you pause after saying "for example", so you put a comma after the second period like this: "e.g.,"

It's the same with i.e. You write: "i.e.," when you use it in a sentence.

I hope that clears it up.

Interrobang

Sometimes, you learn things from your kids. A few days ago, my son told me about a punctuation mark he had learnt in school. It was called the interrobang. He said it was a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. And I said, "Really?!"

Aha. See how I used both a question mark and an exclamation point for my rhetorical exclamation? Well, the interrobang replaces that clumsy double punctuation mark. With the interrobang, a rhetorical statement expressed with some excitement can be rendered with a single mark. The interrobang looks like this: ‽

Example:

• "They did what‽"
• "She really said that‽"
• "How can this be‽"

I have never like the look of a string of question marks and exclamation points together. The only time I would do that was when I wrote TV scripts. With lines like, "Who said that?!" it was important to signal to the actor that the question had to be exclaimed.

Reading Wikipedia's entry on the interrobang, it seems Martin K. Speckter, an adman, was also tired of seeing the clumsy looking combination and he invented the interrrobang in 1962. He came up with the word by combining interrogation (point) + bang (printers' slang for exclamation point).

I should start using it more. It's not easy to produce though. In Microsoft Word, you can find the interrobang under Wingdings 2. I found four versions in my copy of MS Word 2003. I guess I'll need to set a shortcut key for it. Hmm, perhaps I should make the combination of ?! autocorrect into the interrobang. Now isn't that a great idea‽