Dash or hyphen

[AngloScot]

What is the difference between a dash and a hyphen.

[Quizmonster]

Length!

Seriously, the function of a hyphen, which used to be the shorter of the two, is to link and that of a dash is more commonly to separate (but see below). In British English at least, we still tend to use a hyphen between closely-tied words...eg 'dining' and 'room' become 'dining-room'. Americans, on the other hand, are throwing the hyphen out wholesale, so we probably will soon as well.

The dash tends to be used, for example, to separate a heading from its subsequent list. "For a successful camping-trip, you require many things - a tent, a stove, a...." It is also used to indicate a span, as in "Numbers 21-29"...to show joint names, as in "US-British trade"...to indicate parenthesis, as in "What is happening - he believes - is..."

[Clanad]

Ahhh!  Evidence that size does matter - something I've maintained for years... and now I've proof.  Thanks!

[Quizmonster]

For a fuller explanation, in British English hyphens are used as follows:
a.  to join two or more words to form a single expression, such as �up-to-date'
b.  to join certain prefixes to names, such as �anti-European'
c.  to prevent misunderstandings...eg �twenty-odd politicians' does not mean the same thing as �twenty odd politicians'.  The first means �between 20 and 30 politicians' and the second means �exactly 20 politicians...but peculiar ones'
d.  to avoid ambiguity...eg we �recover' from an illness but we �re-cover' a settee
e.  to separate similar letters/sounds...eg �co-operate'
f.  to stand for a common element that will appear later...eg �two-, three-, or fourfold'
g.  to link word-parts at the end/beginning of printed lines...eg �colon-isation', where there was insufficient room to get the whole word onto the line.

The dash is used as follows:
a.  to show a span such as Nos 1-5
b.  to indicate a period of time such as 1990-1995
c.  between linked places...the Paris-Marseilles train
d.  between the names of people jointly responsible for something to indicate that it is not a single, hyphenated name...the Mason-Dixon Line
e.  to act as parenthesis...The answer is - he contends - greater investment
f.  to precede an explanation...I had met John - indeed he was to become a close friend.

[booksworth]

The document-setting software called "Latex" allows three lengths: the hyphen; the shorter dash (for number ranges); the longer dash (as parentheses). Is this convention found elsewhere?

[Quizmonster]

I've only heard of two lengths in this respect. One is called the 'en-rule' and the other the 'em-rule'. This refers to the space occupied by the letters 'n' and 'm', the latter being twice as long as the former. In British usage, if you look at my dash-list above, the em-rule applies only to Item 'e'...the parenthesis, as you suggest, Booksworth.

[coggles]

Hello Quizzy, you have just brought back great memories of my apprenticeship. Part of my course was Letterpress and we used em and en spaces etc. I loved it, even though it is very sloooow compared to how we set type today!