Punctuation Department · Today with The Mayor

Hyphen & Dash

1 Learn Start here

2 Assess Take the quiz

3 Practice Try it out

★ Certified Earn your badge

▶ Play Optional

Hyphen & Dash

Tap an officer to meet them, then work through each one.

Join two words with a hyphen

A hyphen joins two or more words into a compound modifier when they act as one describer before a noun (a well-known author, an ice-cold drink). Use no spaces around a hyphen.

In a sentence

She is a well-known author.

I drank an ice-cold soda.

Now you try

Two words acting as one describer before a noun. You could try ice-cold, well-known, or first-place.

Set off or break with a dash

A dash can set off a nonrestrictive element, the same job a pair of commas (Chief Comma) or a pair of parentheses (Defense Attorney Parentheses) can do. The dash is the loudest of the three. It is written as two hyphens (--) when typed.

In a sentence

My brother -- a chef -- cooks dinner.

The trail -- steep but short -- ends at the lake.

Now you try

Use a dash where a comma would be too quiet. Like: My brother -- a chef -- cooks dinner.

Three marks, three jobs

A hyphen joins words into one unit (the shortest mark). A dash sets off or breaks a sentence for emphasis (longer). An ellipsis, three periods, marks an omission. Each does a different job; tell them apart by length and by what they do.

In a sentence

A well-known author spoke.

The room -- now empty -- echoed.

Now you try

A hyphen joins two words; a dash breaks or sets a part off.