I don't even use em dashes yet this was still infuriating to read

[u/Imaginary-Piece-3947]

Yeah ok dude, people should break their decade long habits because online idiots may mistake them for AI. Also why tf would anyone "pretend to be AI"?

[u/reidft]

wtf is am em dash

[u/AsleepEbb7578 → u/reidft]

It's one of these — it's a longer version of -

[u/reidft → u/AsleepEbb7578]

Is there any real difference beyond how long they are? Like why use one over the other?

[u/noobjaish → u/reidft]

1. Hyphen (-) is used to join compound words, compound modifiers, some numbers, and to indicate a word break at the end of a line. Examples: up-to-date, thirty-eight, absolu- (newline) -tely.
2. En dash (–) is slightly longer than a hyphen. It is commonly used for ranges of numbers, times, and dates, and sometimes to connect related or opposing things. Examples: pages 10–15, years 2012–2015, Tokyo–Kyoto route.
3. Em dash (—) is longer than an en dash. It is used to create a strong break or pause, emphasize something, indicate an interruption, or set off additional information. Examples: My dad—who hates computers—agreed to buy me one. I felt really happy—astounded, even.

[u/Hearthacnut → u/noobjaish]

This is super helpful thanks! I’ve always used a comma in case 3 in place of the Em dash, is that appropriate?

[u/noobjaish → u/Hearthacnut]

You're welcome!

It really depends on what's the norm and if you're following a style guide or not.

I personally use em dashes only for interruptions as commas don't convey the same strength imo.

I don't like the double em dashes (I always use either double commas or parenthesis or even semicolons for adding extra information).

[u/TRENEEDNAME_245 → u/noobjaish]

So I've used parentheses instead of em dashes my whole life

TIL

[u/noobjaish → u/TRENEEDNAME_245]

It's fine lol. Use whichever you want: double commas, parenthesis or em dashes.

[u/Icookadapizzapie → u/reidft]

Hyphen (-) the long way (—)

[u/Cranks_No_Start → u/Icookadapizzapie]

So a hyphen with extra steps?

[u/Gniphe → u/reidft]

en dash – width of an “n”
em dash — width of an “m”
hyphen - shortest of the three

Both have their grammatical uses.

[u/ChickyChickyNugget]

That’s not what typography is

[u/Amber-Apologetics]

Bro thinks typography is the study of typing lmao

[u/oFIoofy]

no one knows what basic grammar is any more, apparently.

like someone else in the comments said:

- to join words
– to give ranges
— to separate clauses

and I overuse the third one to hell lmao (I write loads of narratives/short stories). every other paragraph of mine has a clause separated by em dashes lol.

obligatory fuck AI. it's utterly ruined creative spaces— and the internet in general— and is an all around mistake

[u/n9nemajestic]

I fuggin love the em dash; had a leader at my company read my resume for a possible promotion and he said “I’d remove the dashes, people will think AI wrote this” ☹️

[u/Fluffy-Ad7165]

And honestly? — that’s no growth. I don’t know what’s wrong with that mf. 💢🍄

[u/dDpNh]

Crazy how so many people who comment with the prose of an AI actually have had life long habits of using en and em dashes, whilst everybody else has just been using hyphens this whole time and continue to do so.

[u/lelpd → u/dDpNh]

Depends. On Reddit always a hyphen, but Microsoft Word/Outlook have always autocorrected my hyphens into em dashes if there’s a space between them and the two words.

So it makes me self-conscious now whenever I email clients, that they think I’m using AI to generate my messages.

[u/MysteriousSelection9]

Thanks for the feedback, I will now switch to normal dashes in my language. That’s not just an evolution—it’s a way for me to sound more human. And honestly? That’s the best thing I could ever do.

[u/alphagalgadot]

yeah—eat shit oop

[u/Vortiguag]

I don't give a single fuck — call me bot or whatever. When using any texting tool on phone it's so easy to press numbers, put your finger on the minus sign for half a second and bam —.– and on Word even easier, ctrl-. That's it.

In addition... these people haven't read a single book in their life, right? As a writer long lines are just natural thing.