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submitted 5 days ago by OpticalMoose@discuss.tchncs.de to c/me_irl@lemmy.world

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[-] TomasEkeli@programming.dev 6 points 5 days ago

em dashes are typographical faffery and have always been (in my opinion) a marker of writers who take themselves, and the surface level of their style, far too serious.

just use commas, my friend

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 days ago

em dashes, en dashes, and commas have different meanings and uses

[-] TomasEkeli@programming.dev 1 points 4 days ago

aren't all of them "do a short pause"?

[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago

no.

comma: do a short pause
hyphen: connect two related concept words to loosely create a new word
en dash: signify a range
em dash: do an abrupt, possibly long, pause or signify an attribution
ellipses: do a trailing, possibly long, pause

[-] marcos@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

Just use commas, my friend

vs.

Just use commas -- my friend

It doesn't work very well.

[-] TomasEkeli@programming.dev 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

dashes cannot always replace commas, but commas can replace dashes.

thus - commas are more powerful

thus, commas are more powerful

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

v2 here though?

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025

535 points (100.0% liked)

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