When to Use an En Dash

Dates and Time

We use the en dash between numbers to signal time in terms of dates, like this ‘1987–2020’, it shows that the period spans from 1987 to 2020. When reading en dashes in this context, you can read it as ‘to’. You can also use it to refer to the spanning of time too, like this ’11:30–19:00′. Here are some examples of how that might work in different sentences:

• World War 2 (1939–1945) was one of the most deadly conflicts in history.
• The 2011–2012 school year was the best one yet!
• The professor’s office hours are 09:00–11:30.
• You probably read the examples above replacing the en dash with the word ‘to’.

Scores

We also use an en dash between scores to represent the difference between them, like this ’27–0′. Here are some examples below:

• The Rhinos were beating the Bulls 21–7.
• They voted Sally president of the boxing club 13–10.
• They chose Tim to be captain 7–4.

Connections and Conflict

You can also use en dashes to show that it connects two things in a sentence ‘London–Paris flight’ or that it opposes two things to one another ‘North–South divide’. Here’s how it might look in different sentences:

• The highway runs east–west.
• The North–South divide has never been stronger in Britain.
• The London–Paris flight will leave shortly.

Compound Adjectives

If an adjective is formed from two simple words, then they are usually connected by a hyphen. However, if one of the compounds is a phrase or already contains a hyphen, to avoid confusion, an en dash is used.

• Next week a National Book Award–winning novelist is coming to our town to present her new book.
• Due to reasons unknown to his audience, this writer works exclusively with e-book–only publishers.