If you’ve ever found yourself confused about the difference between a dash and a hyphen, and when to use a hyphen, you’re far from alone. When you handwrite them, they probably look exactly the same.

Hyphen defenders (or is it hyphen-defenders?), take heart. The Associated Press is reversing some of its March 2019 guidance on how we use the wedding band of the punctuation world. “Thanks to input ...

The beef had been aged dry for 30 days, and it changed my life. Not the way you’re thinking. I didn’t eat the life-changing meat. I just read about it in an article I was editing — and my relationship ...

Recently, I wrote about some changes to the AP Stylebook’s rules on hyphens. Specifically, I reported that AP is going lighter on them, arguing that if a hyphen doesn’t do anything to make a compound ...

The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for. By Nitsuh Abebe There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a ...

The apparent problem is that AP refuses to set down “rules.” As the stylebook says, using hyphens “can be a matter of taste, judgment and style sense.” Judging by many of the Twitter reactions to the ...

Have you noticed that, lately, you're less inclined to stick a hyphen between words? That is, you're looking at a term like "a time honored tradition," realizing you could put a hyphen in ...

Hyphens are only used to combine certain words together. They are not strong enough to set off phrases or words from a sentence. Use hyphens in the following situations: Use in compound numbers and ...

Many people don't know there are different kinds of dashes. They often call a hyphen a dash — which, to an editor, is like calling a period a colon. In fact, there are an unnerving assortment of ...

Language has rules. For people who aren't too confident in their writing and grammar skills, the rules can be very useful, helping determine things like which verb form to use and where to put a ...