CAN ‘HYPHEN’ AND ‘DASH’ BE USED INTERCHANGEABLY?

 

CAN ‘HYPHEN’ AND ‘DASH’ BE USED INTERCHANGEABLY?

-        HYPHEN is represented with a small horizontal sign that looks like a short minus sign (-)

-        DASH is also represented with a horizontal sign that looks like a minus sign, but is longer than a hyphen (---).  As a matter of fact, a dash is three times longer than a hyphen.

       Grammatically speaking, hyphen and dash are punctuation marks, but with different functions.  Let us now discuss their functions to enable us know how they differ.

 

1.  Hyphen (-)

-    Used to indicate compound words e.g guard-of-honour, ex-manager.

-    Used to link words that have special application in a sentence.

-    Also used to hyphenate long words which cannot be accommodated on a preceding line, and have to be carried over to the next line.

2. Dash (---)

Short dash is referred to by some as En Dash and long dash is referred to by some as Em Dash.

      -   Used to emphasize a point or an idea within a sentence. (Please see the following sentence)

‘Prior to 2003, Warri was a booming ‘Oil City’ in Delta State. But since February, 2003 when it experienced a multi-pronged crisis --- in fact the worst crisis since its cradle --- the city has not been the same’.

The two dashes used in the sentence above, help us to have in-depth knowledge of the seriousness of the crises which Warri had in 2003.

OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH

Let us now use the remaining space of our column to discuss other parts of punctuation marks, and in the process, reinforce our memories.

3.    Quotation Marks (“”)  (‘’)

-        Used for quotations e.g. “Friends, Romans and countrymen”, said Mark Anthony.

-        Used to indicate titles of books, articles, journals etc. For example: I

have read ‘No Longer At Ease’.

-        Both marks are sometimes used to make quotation within quotation in a passage or sentence.

4.    Question Mark (?)

-        Used to indicate a direct question e.g. Where are you going to?

Please take note that question marks are not used for an indirect question e.g. He asked me where I was going. When a question is indirect, it is treated as a statement.

-        Used to indicate a doubt e.g. Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (1904-1996?)

5.    Exclamation Mark (!)

-        Used to indicate an exclamatory expression such as sudden surprise, joy, anger, fear, etc. An example is ‘Oh! My goodness’.

-        Used to emphasize a point or an idea within a sentence.

 6.    Bracket (Parenthesis) ( ) & Brackets { }:

-        Used to enclose an explanation point in a sentence. Take note that whatever information is enclosed within brackets in a sentence should be carefully written in such a way that if the bracketed information is removed, the remainder of the sentence would still be meaningful.

-        Also used as a brace to draw the eye to groups of common interest or having some ties e.g.

Efe Boy                 }

Emma Ukpabio     } Members of USSA.

Ochuko Ovo          }

 

7.     Ellipsis (…)

An ellipsis is made of four dots following each other.

-         It is used to show where words have been missed out from, when writing what a person said.  This is often done to save time and space. For example: “Whatever things are true … are of serious concern … are righteous … are chaste … are lovable … are well-spoken-of … are virtuous … and … are praiseworthy, continue considering these things” (Philippians 4:8).

-         It can also be used to show that there is more to be said or written, but the person stopped at that point.

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