You are forgiven if you perceive every post or comment containing em dashes as the great work of Gen-AI. I know I do, being somewhat judgemental—it is the tell-tale mark, that and correctly following rules of grammar. (Notice what I did there?)
TIL: I am a grammar heathen, and apparently poorly educated in English. My “English O-Level” certificate means nowt.
The universe confirmed this when I confidently critiqued my daughter’s academic paper — only for GPT to adjudicate and hand me my own backside.
Prompt 1: In English is it OK to write “…word- more words” or should there be a space before the hyphen?
All my life, I thought you join ideas (breaks in thought) with ” – “. I am now crying inside.
Let the trolling commence. Over to you, GPT — I know you’ve got opinions.
You’re right to pause over that little space — it changes the meaning and the correctness.
✨ The short answer
In standard English, you should not put a space before a hyphen. So this is correct:
- word–more words
This is incorrect:
- word –more words
- word – more words (if you intend it as a hyphen)
But… there’s a twist.
✨ The longer, useful answer
Writers often confuse hyphens (-) with dashes (– or —), and the spacing rules differ:
1. Hyphen (-)
Used to join words (e.g., well‑known, user‑friendly). No spaces on either side.
2. En dash (–)
Used for ranges or contrasts (e.g., London–Paris flight). No spaces in British English. Spaces optional in some American styles.
3. Em dash (—)
Used for breaks in thought — like this. No spaces in US style. Spaces on both sides are common in UK publishing.
So depending on what you meant, the correct forms are:
| Purpose | Correct UK style | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hyphen | word-more words | No spaces |
| En dash | word–more words | No spaces in UK |
| Em dash | word — more words | Spaces often used in UK |
✨ For your example (“…word- more words”)
If you meant a hyphen, remove the space: …word-more words
If you meant a dash, choose the right one and spacing style: …word — more words (UK em dash style)
If you want, tell me the exact sentence you’re writing and I’ll recommend the cleanest, most natural punctuation for it.
Prompt 2: I grew up during the infancy of word processors. We had a hyphen, not em dash, en dash etc. Has English always had the concept? I didn’t learn about it in school.
English has always had the underlying punctuation concepts, but the names, distinctions, and keyboard access have changed dramatically over time — which is why so many people your age (and plenty younger) never learned about en dashes or em dashes in school.
🖨️ 1. Before word processors: the typewriter era
Typewriters had one horizontal line: the hyphen. That single key had to do the work of:
- hyphens
- minus signs
- en dashes
- em dashes
- bullet‑like breaks in dialogue
- even decorative separators
Teachers didn’t teach the difference because you couldn’t type the difference. There was no point explaining a punctuation mark you couldn’t produce.
Writers faked em dashes by typing two hyphens (--). Printers later replaced them with proper em dashes during typesetting.
📚 2. Before typewriters: the printing‑press era
In professional printing (books, newspapers, pamphlets), em dashes and en dashes absolutely existed. They go back to at least the 1700s in English printing.
But they were:
- typesetter’s marks, not writer’s marks
- chosen by compositors, not authors
- invisible to most schoolchildren
So unless you trained in printing or editing, you wouldn’t have been taught the terminology.
✏️ 3. In school curricula
Most English curricula focused on:
- commas
- semicolons
- colons
- quotation marks
- apostrophes
Hyphens were taught only for compound words. Dashes were mentioned vaguely as “a long dash” — no distinction between en and em.
The idea of teaching:
- “This is an en dash”
- “This is an em dash”
…would have been considered unnecessary and overly technical.
💻 4. Word processors changed everything
Once computers made it trivial to insert:
- – en dash
- — em dash
…style guides (Chicago, APA, Oxford, etc.) started formalising their use. Suddenly, writers could see the difference, so the distinctions became worth teaching.
That’s why it feels like a modern concept: the marks existed, but the average writer never interacted with them until computers democratized typesetting.
🎯 The bottom line
- Yes, English has had en and em dashes for centuries.
- No, most people weren’t taught them, because typewriters couldn’t produce them and school curricula didn’t bother.
- Word processors made them mainstream, so now we talk about them as if they’ve always been part of everyday writing.
Oh. I shall try a little harder. Now I think about it, I do remember seeing it in books, and not even raising an eyebrow.
If you see em dashes in my prose: assume GPT probably helped me polish the sentence — but the ideas, the diagrams, and the code are mine.
Also, I routinely use GitHub Co-pilot when writing code (commercial and for fun).
GitHub Co-pilot didn’t create any of my app—where it wrote a function (probably plagiarised it from a cool developer like you), I openly call it out in the code comments.
I hope the presence of grammar errors in my posts demonstrates I am a human—and one who apparently was too lazy to Grammarly it.