Dashes

hey grammarians hey Paige hi David today we're gonna talk about dashes which is a piece of punctuation looks kind of like this it's just kind of a straight line later we're gonna talk about hyphens which looks like this and there is a difference between the two of them it's kind of confusing but first we're just gonna talk about dashes what they are and what they do okay sounds good to me so dashes have approximately four uses use number one is that they can mark interruptions in the structure of a sentence as in I ran to the bus stop but the bus had already driven away so we're using this dash to interrupt the structure of this sentence okay but couldn't you just put a comma there you know you you totally could you absolutely could use a comma instead of a dash but the dash has this feeling and I'm gonna make up a word here it feels more interrupting okay great so a comma sort of helps the sentence keep flowing hmm and the dash kind of stops it for a second and even though grammatically those two sentences are identical right I ran to the bus stop comma but the bus had already driven away even though that's technically that means the exact same thing as I ran to the bus stop - but the bus had already driven away this is kind of like an abrupt cut off so like the comma right the the dash is uniting these two independent clauses I ran to the bus stop the bus had already driven away right so like you know comma but would connect those two independent clauses the same way that - but is connecting those two clauses but it has a slightly different connotation it's just more abrupt in the way that it connects these these two things together okay also it looks like you don't have a space before after your dash is right is that right so originally when I drawn it it didn't look a lot closer but yes in according to the Chicago Manual of style that Khan Academy uses it would just go word - word than a space but when you're using dashes generally you don't put you don't put spaces in between them and between in between words so that's use number one it can interrupt the structure of a sentence we use number two for the - is that they can act like parenthesis in pairs so the - is in the same place as it as another type of punctuation could be again correct okay the - I guess is kind of like so let's look at another example sentence and I'll switch colors the bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of a softball enormous bug but pages you rightly pointed out you know it's this is the same as Halligan in parentheses you wouldn't have both of these together like that but they've yeah they have the exact same function in this case in this case so when you have them in pairs like so it's the bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of a softball so it's kind of this aside if we really wanted to we could take it right out of the sentence kind of like an appositive right with commas so we could say the bug had to be the size of a softball sentence till make sense right use number three a dash can be used where you would otherwise use a colon so in this case it's gonna be sort of introducing something so the colon has this linking power right it can introduce ideas it can start a list you can do the same thing with a dash so for example if we wanted to introduce an idea we could say I have only ever wanted one thing snacks me to page so many snacks me too so right so we're using this to introduce this idea the same way that we would had it been a colon okay so the dash is like a little actor yeah yeah the dash is like an actor that can use like do the jobs of all these other these other punctuation marks so it can be parentheses it can be a colon it can be like a comma sometimes wow there's a talented little guy seriously I'm very impressed and the fourth use of the dash is again to indicate interruptions but specifically to indicate interruptions in speech this is like its own little special thing yeah it's not acting like anything else nope just indicating interruption as watch out for that Wham so so we're using this - to say that this sentence was interrupted by something and then you know we deployed this sound effect but it could be anything really so if you're if you're trying to write down dialogue that is being cut off by something by another person interrupting by avalanche of ice cream I don't know you know whatever it is then you would use a dash at the end of the sentence so no space so would go that - quotation marks and you wouldn't have to do any kind of terminal punctuation no need for a period or a question mark or an exclamation point the the - kind of serves that role because it's a very fancy actor so I wouldn't say I wouldn't say that the - as an actor can perform the same roles as terminal punctuation as periods or question marks or exclamation points but rather I would say that it's cutting off the sentence before we can even get to where those would live okay yeah it's saying there would have been more words in this sentence and then terminal punctuation but so that's what dashes can do they are used to mark interruptions in the structure of a sentence like I ran to the bus stop but the bus had already driven away they can act like parentheses when they're used in pairs so like the bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of a softball you can use them like a colon to lead into lists or to link an idea so I have only ever wanted one thing snacks and they can indicate interruptions in speech like watch out for that well and those are the functions of the - you got it you can learn anything gave it out paid out