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Fixed that for you: _American_ writers have always used the em dash. In British English orthography, space-en dash-space is much more common.
by Doctor_Fegg 1y ago
Fixed that for you: _American_ writers have always used the em dash. In British English orthography, space-en dash-space is much more common.
- giveita 1y agospace – en-dash – space?
- orphea 1y ago> Fixed that for you: _American_ writers Reverting the fix. Em dashes are not exclusive to Americans (or English at all), they are used in other languages.
- philipwhiuk 1y agoPR rejected, please add sufficient examples as unit tests to ensure we hit our code coverage.
- uncircle 1y agoI've recently enjoyed the German philosopher Max Stirner's liberal usage of em-dashes to add, at the end of his sentences — great emphasis. > Before the sacred, people lose all sense of power and all confidence; they occupy a powerless and humble attitude toward it. And yet no thing is sacred of itself, but by my declaring it sacred, by my declaration, my judgment, my bending the knee; in short, by my — conscience. --- In any case, the "en-dash", as you seem to suggest, is not equivalent to the "em-dash", but typically used to express ranges or contrast between two words, i.e. "1990–1992" or "push–pull configuration".
- robin_reala 1y ago…in en-US. In en-GB, the en-dash surrounded by normal spaces, as per GP, is used where the US would use an em-dash flanked with hair spaces. Edit: I dug out the original text of your translated phrase to see if it was Stirner’s or the translator’s use of em-dashes, and it looks like it was direct from Stirner: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sQ5RAAAAcAAJ_2/page/n89/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sQ5RAAAAcAAJ_2/page/n89/m...
- tcldr 1y agoNo. In Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic style – pretty much a bible amongst typographers – he states: We should “[u]se spaced en dashes – rather than close-set em dashes or spaced hyphens – to set off phrases.” Bringhurst then adds this devastating indictment: The em dash is the nineteenth-century standard, still prescribed in many editorial style books, but the em dash is too long for use with the best text faces. Like the oversized space between sentences, it belongs to the padded and corseted aesthetic of Victorian typography.
- uncircle 1y agoI have no excuse: I read that book, and I thought I was quoting his advice from memory.
- gadders 1y agoI break sentences up with a " - " all the time, just by using the minus sign (hyphen). I'm not bothering to use the correct, slightly longer dash. I'm British English speaker.
- ToDougie 1y agoDitto. Learned how to effectively use it in college - I'll never stop!