Dashes Punctuation Khan Academy

Hey, Grimarians. Hey, Paige. Hi, David. Today, we're going to talk about dashes, which is piece of punctuation. Looks kind of like this. it's just kind of straight line. Later, we're going to talk about hyphens, which looks like this. and there is difference between the two of them. It's kind of confusing, but first we're just going to talk about dashes, what they are, and what they do. Okay, sounds good to me. So, dashes have approximately four uses. Use number one is that they can mark interruptions in the structure of sentence. As in, ran to the bus stop, but the bus had already driven away. So, we're using this dash to interrupt the structure of this sentence. Okay, but couldn't you just put comma there? You know, you you totally could. You absolutely could use comma instead of dash, but the dash has this feeling, and I'm going to make up word here. It feels more interrupty. Okay. Right. So, comma sort of helps the sentence keep flowing and the dash kind of stops it for second. And even though grammatically those two sentences are identical, right? ran to the bus stop, but the bus had already driven away. Even though that's technically that means the exact same thing as ran to the bus stop dash but the bus had already driven away. This is kind of like an abrupt cut off. So like the comma, right? the the dash is uniting these two independent clauses. ran to the bus stop, the bus had already driven away, right? So like, you know, comma but would connect those two independent clauses the same way that dash butt is connecting those two clauses. but it has slightly different connotation. It's just more abrupt in the way that it connects these these two things together. Okay. Also, it looks like you don't have space before after your dash. Is that is that right? So, originally when drawn it, it did look lot closer, but yes, in according to the Chicago Manual of Style that Khan Academy uses, it would just go word dash word then space. But when you're using dashes, generally you don't put you don't put spaces in between them in between in between words. Right? So, that's use number one. It can interrupt the structure of sentence. Use number two for the dash is that they can act like parentheses in pairs. So the dash is in the same place as it as another type of punctuation could be again. Correct. Okay. The dash guess is kind of like So let's look at another example sentence and I'll switch colors. The bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of softball. Enormous bug. But Paige as you rightly pointed out you know it's this is the same as having it in parenthesis. You wouldn't have both of these together like that, but they do the same thing. But they Yeah, they have the exact same function in this case. In this case. So when you have them in pairs like so, it's the bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of softball. So it's kind of this aside. If we really wanted to, we could take it right out of the sentence kind of like in positive, right, with commas. so we could say the bug had to be the size of softball. Sentence still makes sense, right? Use number three, dash can be used where you would otherwise use colon. So in this case, it's going to be sort of introducing something, right? So the colon has this linking power, right? It can introduce ideas. It can start list. You can do the same thing with dash. so for example, if we wanted to introduce an idea, we could say, have only ever wanted one thing. Snacks. Me too, Paige. So many snacks. Me too. so right. So we're using this to introduce this idea the same way that we would had it been colon. Okay. So the dash is like little actor. Yeah. Yeah. The dash is like an actor that can just like do the jobs of all these other these other punctuation marks, right? So it can be parentheses, it can be colon, can be it can be like comma sometimes. Yeah. Wow. That is that is talented little guy. Seriously, I'm very impressed. And the fourth use of the dash is again to indicate interruptions, but specifically to indicate interruptions in speech. This is like its own little special thing. Yeah, it's not acting like anything else. Nope. Just indicating interruption as it does. Watch out for that. Wham. So, so we're using this dash to say that this sentence was interrupted by something and then you know we deploy this sound effect. but it could be anything really. So, if you're if you're trying to write down dialogue that is being cut off by something by another person interrupting by avalanche of ice cream, don't know, you know, whatever it is. then you would use dash at the end of the sentence. So, no space. So it would go that dash quotation marks totally. And you wouldn't have to do any kind of terminal punctuation. No need for period or question mark or an exclamation point. The the dash kind of serves that role. Of course it does because it's very fancy actor. So wouldn't say wouldn't say that the dash as an actor can perform the same roles as terminal punctuation as periods or question marks or exclamation points. but rather would say that it's cutting off the sentence before we can even get to where those would live. Okay. Yeah. It's saying there would have been more words in this sentence and then terminal punctuation. But so that's what dashes can do. they are used to mark interruptions in the structure of sentence like ran to the bus stop but the bus had already driven away. They can act like parentheses when they're used in pairs. So like the bug which landed on my nose had to be the size of softball. you can use them like colon to lead into lists or to link an idea. So, have only ever wanted one thing, snacks. And they can indicate interruptions in speech like watch out for that. Wham. That was good. Thanks. and those are the functions of the dash. You got it. You can learn anything. David out. Paige out.