#oh thats so funny!! because em- being short for emphasis would make sense out of context. how interesting

[bookishjules]

i actually think i do remember that from when i studied in the uk! american english does use en-dashes, but mostly in place of "to" like to show a range of numbers. it's curious tho that em-dashes really aren't used in british english! it makes sense you wouldn't have a need to know the distinction

just so you know (because while the uses vary depending on dialect, the names of each of these are pretty standard, i think):

a hyphen (-) is what we might normally refer to as a "dash."

an en-dash (–) is a dash named for being as long as the letter n.

an em-dash (—) is a dash named for being as long as the letter m.

AAAAAH THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED AN EM-DASH

Ok I see now, cause the first one I call a hyphen, and then the second two are both just a dash to me, thank you so much for explaining what an em-dash actually is lol

Also I googled it and apparently in American English they mostly use em-dashes whereas in UK English we mostly use en-dashes with a space either side, I had literally no idea that even DASHES are used differently in American vs British English, so this is a very fun fact which I'm sure you'll also appreciate if you didn't already know it