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Comment by mauvehaus | Hacker News Reader

I'm a little surprised that anyone would write this article without mentioning the en-dash and em-dash. They are frequently confused with hyphens but serve a rich and sometimes overlapping variety of purposes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#En_dash

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash#Em_dash

(Edited to fix the spelling of em-dash. Doh!)

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My favourite example of this is using an en dash for a relationship between two separate things, rather than the more closely-connected compound adjective of a hyphen.

Italian–American relations: foreign relations between the governments of Italy and the United States. Italian-American relations: relatives who have moved from Italy to the United States.

I'm surprised at how much of an impact your use of the en dash here has on how I read the sentence. I found myself pausing longer between words in my inner dialogue as I read "Italian–American".

Prosody is wonderful, innit?

Thanks for making me look-up a word.

They don't mention it because the dash is dead. Check any major news web site, even the New York Times, and you'll find they often use the repulsive double hyphen in place of dash.

The article has two Em dashes in the first paragraph. I believe haven't noticed the double hyphen anywhere. I know some word processors turn `--` to En dash and `---` to Em dash, so it might be a mix-up there.

Can't find any in the NYT today, but here's one from CNN: https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_ff31bbc01931e2dcb21eea5d2b...

Their full site uses an en dash: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/us/texas-migrant-arrest-progr...

I'd be aghast if a double hyphen was the house style for a major news outlet.

Does it? I definitely see a double-hyphen at this link.

> Black and Brown – primarily Latino

Many applications will auto-correct, or typeset double dash to an En-dash. Perhaps they thought they were using such an editor?

I always type -- for en dash. Usually text fields that accept markdown-like syntax will correct it, but I just leave it if they don't.

>repulsive double hyphen

Why do you insult my Underwood? It has not harmed you.

But in this very article there are m-dashes.

Article is about (very pedantic) orthography not typography. There are at least two em dashes used in the article but—that’s-(nevertheless)-completely–offtopic.

Came here to say the same. Reduces the authority of the article imho.

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