What’s the difference between a dash and a hyphen? For most people the difference is immaterial—aren’t they just they just different words for this little thing— -?
Well, not quite. For most people the difference isn’t really important, but if you spend a reasonable amount of time writing, the differences are important.
Today I came across the phrase zombie film maker (to describe someone who makes zombie films) somewhere online. I don’t really remember where now, but that’s not important. What struck me about this fabulous phrase was that it was crying out for some punctuation! Before I go any further, I want you to think about how it should be punctuated. Should it be:
zombie-film maker?
or…
zombie film-maker? Continue reading
When I decided to call my blog English-Language Thoughts, I paused after first seeing the title typed out. I knew of course that it was the correct title, but it didn’t seem so aesthetically pleasing with that little hyphen in there. It makes it asymmetrical, too heavy and clumped together on the left. English Language Thoughts would probably look much better.
English-Language Thoughts 