ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literary Devices Videos 9 videos
Everybody who's tired of the word “epic,” raise your hand. Wow, that’s a lot of hands. But there is an acceptable time and place for the word...
This video explains what role an antagonist serves and how to identify the antagonist in a story. Fun fact: the antagonist doesn’t have to be evi...
Did you know that you, as a writer, get your own toolbox? That's right! It doesn’t even matter how badly you fouled up that sliding bookshelf you...
Dashes 2377 Views
Share It!
Description:
A dash is a fun and flashy way to let your reader know that there is awesomeness coming up. It’s like the colon’s cool older cousin. This video covers how to use both em dashes and en dashes and the difference between hyphens and dashes, to make sure you’re using the dash just right—how cool.
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak in stashes Rushman Robert is a
- 00:07
dashing young man with his romantic and adventurous nature there's
- 00:11
nothing he loved so much as sweeping the ladies off
- 00:14
their feet with his amazing grammar And which punctuation mark
- 00:18
does dashing robert like to deploy in his quest for
Full Transcript
- 00:22
love Why the dash of course a dash is a
- 00:25
dramatic kind of punctuation mark while a colon may go
- 00:29
unnoticed in the middle of a sentence because it does
- 00:32
nothing more than service a set up two additional information
- 00:35
and frankly a lot of jokes in the grammar community
- 00:38
A dash signals that something exciting is about to happen
- 00:41
It tells us the buckle our seat belts because the
- 00:43
ride is about to get all kinds of bumpy For
- 00:46
example let's say dashing robert is discussing his vacation plans
- 00:49
with a lady friend He tells her i have a
- 00:52
destination in mind Colin my aunt merle's lake house robert
- 00:57
would use the colon because well let's be honest and
- 00:59
morals Lake house is totally blend not worthy of a
- 01:02
dash However if robert has somewhere more exotic and exciting
- 01:05
plan for his vacation he'd say i have a destination
- 01:08
In mind dash a cruise around the med on my
- 01:12
luxurious yacht cruise around the med Oh how dashing or
- 01:16
what If robert is telling one of his conquest what
- 01:18
he likes for dinner Well i eat the same thing
- 01:21
every thursday night Colon macaroni and cheese with a sliced
- 01:24
up hot dog Anything inside of it Yeah sorry bob
- 01:27
but kraft out of a box on ly merits a
- 01:29
colon However if robert says instead i eat the same
- 01:33
thing every thursday night dash the nine course tasting menu
- 01:37
from the french laundry well five hundred dollar dinners from
- 01:40
michelin starred restaurants deserve a dash Now that we've talked
- 01:44
a little about how dash is our full of drama
- 01:46
let's talk about the different types of dashes First comes
- 01:49
the end dash which is long and then the end
- 01:52
dash which is short in most senses Like our examples
- 01:56
involving robert we use the longer m dash which can
- 01:59
be inserted into a sentence in one of two ways
- 02:01
either from the special character menu in word or by
- 02:05
typing to hyphens next to one another The hyphen key
- 02:09
is in between the zero key and the equal sign
- 02:11
Key at the top of the keyboard this thing right
- 02:14
here whatever happens don't screw up and accidentally put a
- 02:17
hyphen in place of a dash Hi pins are used
- 02:19
to split or join words not to signal to the
- 02:22
reader that there's impending awesomeness ahead As for the end
- 02:26
or short dash it's on ly uses to indicate a
- 02:29
range of inclusive numbers For example if dashing robert were
- 02:33
to email one of his girlfriends with a message that
- 02:35
includes the dates he's going to be in paris he'd
- 02:38
bust out the end dash If robert wants to let
- 02:40
another lady friend no end to meet for their weekly
- 02:43
tango lesson he'd send her a note like this one
- 02:45
way will then seventy wednesday night at eight p m
- 02:49
on january first and dash january twenty ninth Essentially the
- 02:54
end ash is taking the place of the word too
- 02:57
In this example one final note about dashes be they
- 03:00
of the m or end variety We can put a
- 03:03
space on either side of a dash so that our
- 03:05
sentence would read Dashing robert gave girlfriend number three a
- 03:09
very special present for her birthday space m dash space
- 03:13
A pug puppy or we can leave out those faces
- 03:16
so that we end up with dashing Robert gave girlfriend
- 03:19
number three a very special present for her birthday M
- 03:22
dash a pug puppy We can use spaces on either
- 03:26
side of a dash or not It's a stylistic decision
- 03:29
on the authors part Just be sure to keep it
- 03:31
consistent And now dashing Robert must away He has so
- 03:35
much to do dash and so many more hearts to 00:03:38.285 --> [endTime] steal Hello robert
Related Videos
Want even more deets on tenses? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Want even more deets on semicolons? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
This video defines a primary source and what makes it different from a secondary source. What counts as original material? And where can we find th...
Want even more deets on wordiness? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Asking questions can help spice up an essay. Just make sure you don't get too spicy and forget to answer those questions. You don't want to leave y...