If you’ve ever found yourself confused about the difference between a dash and a hyphen, and when to use a hyphen, you’re far from alone. When you handwrite them, they probably look exactly the same.

Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has compiled information on the usage of the em dash (—), en dash (–), and hyphen (-) in English writing. Em dashes function like commas, colons, or parentheses ...

Hyphens are only used to combine certain words together. They are not strong enough to set off phrases or words from a sentence. Use hyphens in the following situations: Use in compound numbers and ...

This is an excerpt from Post copy editor Bill Walsh’s monthly Grammar Geekery chat, which takes place the first Tuesday of each month. Chatters wanted to explore the many punctuation marks that ...

A hyphen ( - ) is used to link parts of a compound word. This includes most dual heritages (Mexican-American), and all words in a compound modifier except "very" and adverbs that end in "ly." (The ...

The extra-long hyphen known as the em dash is common in AI-generated text. While some writers have responded by choosing to avoid the punctuation mark, others are fighting back.

The dash is the Kim Kardashian of punctuation marks: misplaced, over-exposed, shamelessly self-promoting, always eager to elbow out her jealous sisters the comma, colon, and semicolon. My friend and ...

As a rule, I prefer to make fun of myself rather than make fun of others, but in my previous column I departed from my usual approach. I poked a little fun at people who use dots and dashes as default ...

When we're writing, we can add extra words to a sentence to give more information or explanation. We call the extra words that have been added a parenthesis. Parenthesis is a word or clause inserted ...