+56 It's totally fine to use en dashes — no, it doesn't make your writing sound inhuman, amirite?

by Sheila65 5 days ago

The humble semicolon;

by Anonymous 5 days ago

I wish there was something I could do, but I didn't pay attention in school

by Moist_Mountain 5 days ago

Not always

by WorldlinessSudden466 5 days ago

Correct. For example, you can use them to separate groups of multiple, comma separated items such as: colours like red, yellow, and green; shapes like triangles, and circles; and sizes like large, medium, and small.

by Anonymous 5 days ago

I LOVE semicolons!

by Anonymous 5 days ago

You're obviously not a programmer

by melyna07 5 days ago

The semi colon allows to link 2 independent propositions, but em dash allows to add multiple and diverse clauses - elliptical, list, even a sole syntagm - for emphasis or surprise.

by Anonymous 5 days ago

The humble semicolon that didn't want any beef with the em dash but got it anyways

by Sheila65 5 days ago

OHHHHH 🙀😮🙀

by Careful_Librarian965 5 days ago

Lmao OP confirmed Jabroni

by purdydorcas 4 days ago

I never even heard the term "em dash" until the last 6 months or so.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

had a printing press workshop with a professor the other day and finally learned why they were named this way! it may seem obvious, but the en dash is the same width as an N and the em dash is the width of an M

by Brilliant-Still 4 days ago

Did you mean to write "em dashes"? Because that's what you're describing.

by Carleelakin 4 days ago

Too hard to find on keyboard so I ditched it in my writing in 2011 when I started Uni... .....what?

by Careful_Librarian965 4 days ago

ALT + 0151 or something like that

by blaze81 4 days ago

Double tap dash. For pity's sake

by Anonymous 4 days ago

This is not what en dashes are for. There are actual grammar rules for when to use different width dashes and the en dash is not used for a pause. Hyphen: used for hyphenated words En dash: used to convey the idea of "to" or "through" Em dash: used to set off parenthetical information If you're using a dash simply as a visual element where grammar rules don't apply, then you have more freedom to choose the width that works better for your needs. But if you're using an en dash just to create a pause, you're not doing it right. Learn your grammar.

by Old_Importance 4 days ago

en dashes are used in UK English instead of em dashes, and with spaces either side US English does it like this—an em dash without spacing. UK English usually prefers this – an en dash with spaces.

by Limp_Design 4 days ago

Really? I have some reading to do, the only times I use an elongated hyphen is when I accidentally copy one of the little bastards and it upsets whatever application I'm using

by LandRealistic4139 4 days ago

Fair enough, if you used em dashes in a Turnitin project you'd probably get flagged for AI lol

by Sheila65 4 days ago

The thing is that the reason AI uses it so much is probably because of the training data it got, some of which had likely used a lot of dashes because real people like them. But because of how things like AI work, they can kinda amplify traits that are already there, because it's basically filling in the blanks to make sentences. So if it learned off of stuff with dashes, it's going to shove a lot of them in. It seems to turn those kinds of things up a notch, like it's highlighting those things as more important than they actually are. My big red flag these days is the phrase "true colours" because while not every work that uses it is AI, it seems like AI is "fond" of that term and seems to overuse it.

by krysteldenesik 4 days ago

Lol it's only primarily associated with AI by people who don't read a lot of human-written material. Anyone who's been exposed to a lot of. Y'know. Books? Knows they've been around forever.

by Bradyschmidt 4 days ago

AI uses it far more often than human-written works. It's not about just using em dashes, it's the frequency.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Nah, just the ones who don't read. People who instantly go along with whatever the ignorant masses decide is "common knowledge" are not what society needs.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

You don't need a capital letter after the ellipsis.

by Limp_Design 4 days ago

I have only seen AI use them soo..I definitely judge a body of text that uses them as AI slop

by Choice_Plane 4 days ago

I used one the other day to point out that a coding error was likely to have been the result of AI slop.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

-- sure – or — no

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Before chatgpt: humans used commas and semicolons. After chatgpt: "I've always used en and em dashes!" Footage not found

by Anonymous 4 days ago

a) you're talking about em dashes, not en dashes. b) the correct formatting omits spaces on either side of an em dash. Fonts may make it appear otherwise. c) why do you have such a strong opinion on punctuation when you so clearly don't understand it?

by Other-Walk 4 days ago

En dashes are for range e.g. 1–10. Em dashes are used in expressive writing.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Literate people and professionals do.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Yep. As a lawyer you can pry my em dashes from my cold, dead hands. They serve a purpose!

by Enochkovacek 4 days ago

Ill stick with an ellipses thanks

by considinefreder 4 days ago

There's nothing wrong with it, but there's also no point when writing on a computer as thete are other punctuation marks that can do the same job that are actually on the keyboard. Why go to extra efforts? And that's why em/en dashes are a sign of AI use: they're a hassle for humans but not for AI.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Whether your words need "space to breath" is irrelevant to the fact that one of AI's signatures is to use em dashes, with the prevelance of AI crap flooding the internet you shouldn't be surprised that em dashes are now being associated with inhuman writing. You can use them, but it's ignorant to think people won't associate the use with AI.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

I love throwing them into work emails, lol.

by AdDowntown 4 days ago

Using, "..." in inappropriate places is even worse than a dash.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Using the dash is perfectly legal English. The issue is that it's extremely uncommon to actually see someone use it. Hence, why it appears to be AI when used.

by Anonymous 4 days ago

Em dashes (a 3-key shortcut) are easy for AI to use but harder for humans to type. Em dashes aren't extra in the sense of 'fancy', they're extra in that you have to use two extra keys to write it. En dashes (2-key shortcut) can be used wherever em dashes go, so most people use them instead, or they just (incorrectly) use hyphens as dashes. Also, most people don't know that em dashes—like this—don't get space on either side while en dashes – like this – do get spaces on either side. Even professional writers make mistakes with this. So to read text by random people using the hard-to-type em dashes with correct spacing is a tip-off that the writer is probably AI.

by Additional-Move 4 days ago

That's an em dash in your writing. There are no spaces used with em dashes. A someone with an English degree, one of my professors said it best: em dashes used in a sentence are almost always inserted by people who don't know what punctuation to use.

by Anonymous 4 days ago