Dash or Em Dash?—The Long and Short of It.

A punctuation gameEdition No. 01
Dash or Em Dash?
The Long & Short of It
Know the difference
Choose the Best of Three Marks.

House style: Use hyphens for compound words and modifiers; en dashes for ranges, routes, paired relationships, and open compounds; and em dashes—with no spaces—for emphatic breaks. Other punctuation may also be correct outside this game.

One choice fills every blank. Correct answers earn 1 point. Starting with your third consecutive correct answer, each answer earns a 1-point streak bonus.

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Hyphen U+002D
Joins compound words & modifiers—well-known, part-time
–
En Dash U+2013
Ranges, routes, relationships & open compounds—pages 1–5, teacher–student, New York–based
—
Em Dash U+2014
Pauses, asides & interruptions—Wait—did you hear that?
Spacing the Marks

Hyphens and en dashes are normally set without spaces. Em-dash spacing varies by style; this game uses closed em dashes—with no spaces—throughout.

Choose Your Difficulty
— Mind the space between —