Dashes

Refer to the Punctuation guide for more details!

En dash (–)

Mainly used to indicate spans of times (e.g. “1954–1956” = “From 1954 to 1956”).
If you want an en dash, hold Alt and type 0150 from your numpad.
Make sure not to mix these up with em dashes and hyphens.

On some EU keyboard layouts, the Alt codes only work with the left Alt key.

Em dash (—)

Mainly used to replace commas or colons in certain cases.
If you want an em dash, hold Alt and type 0151 from your numpad.

Em dashes require no spaces before or after them; pay special attention to this!

Use these for non-sequiturs:

e.g. “I was eating—by the way you look great today—and I started talking to Fred.”

Can be used to indicate that a line has been abruptly cut (either by the speaker or by someone else interrupting them). Make sure to capitalize the first letter of the next line when this happens.

e.g. “I was say— // Hey you, stop running!”

Hyphen (-)

Mainly used to create compound words.

Used to indicate stutters (these are different from abrupt cuts in a sentence, which are expressed through the use of em dashes). When this happens, make sure to repeat capitals as well.

e.g. “Th-This time you’re mine!”

There may be certain cases where stuttering can be better conveyed through the use of subbing effects; discuss this option with the subber if you feel like this may be the case in a specific situation.