2026-10-09 18:34 UTC
I never used an em dash in my life before AI made them a thing. I enjoy the jokes about AI can have my em dashes when it pries them from my cold dead… but I cannot relate. Ive only ever used the hyphen or en dash. I cannot figure out for the life of me if I have been missing anything.
Replies (2)
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@aloofPenguin@piefed.world 2026-10-09 20:51
I’ve been told that en dashes are for numbers, and em dashes are for words. I have a vague understanding of the usage, which is splicing phrases/ sentences together. it maybe that you would want to use an em dash when you use a hyphen?
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@MrShankles@reddthat.com 2026-10-10 00:22
I was a pretty avid reader growing up and I think I just kinda noticed them. And I used to get a little confused when my teachers kept knocking me for “run-on” sentences, when the books I read often had long-structured sentences. Commas, semicolons, ellipses, em dashes, colons, parentheses — sprinkle them about and you can have a paragraph of a sentence (with side thoughts), and kinda do whatever you want… it’s all about using “voice” through written word. (Period)