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The Em Dash Responds to the AI Allegations
(www.mcsweeneys.net)
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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2025
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Fuck AI
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–
^ this is a normal dash aka –
—
^ this is an em dash aka —
some extra info:
I think most people would think of the hyphen when they think "normal" dash. the en dash is different from the hyphen, which is shorter than en dash.
hyphen - (half width of letter n)
en dash – (width of letter n)
em dash — (width of letter m)
Are you being intentional here? They answered your question.
A normal dash, otherwise known as a hyphen, is shorter. It looks like this: -
An em-dash is a longer version of a dash, meant to be the same length as the letter m in type (thus the name) that is often used in literary devices. It looks like this —
The posts link is a blog rebuttal from a personification of that em dash itself. The reason the post was made was because ChatGPT, and other AIs, seem to use em dashes far more than normal writing works would. If you even ask it to stop using them it will just continue to do it anyway.
Does that fuckin' help?
Edit: I fixed a fuckywucky. Thanks ChaoticNeutralCzech!
Not really a typewriter, since the monospace 𝚖 and 𝚗 are effectively the same width. But yes, you are correct for 𝐦 and 𝐧 in type.
My mistake <3
Or have read a book. Mary Shelley used them constantly in Frankenstein and so have authors for hundreds of years.
My fault for being so autistic to not see this as the blatant trolling it is up until now.
👍
Why do you need to know tech? You can take a pen and cut a sentence in multiple parts with long dashes instead of using spaces to signify a pause.
It is not tech but typography. The em dash is as wide as the small letter m. The en dash is as wide as the small letter n. These two letters are often used for referencing width in typography. There are other reference points, like the small letter x used for height.
Dude this is about grammar not tech. They just gave you the physical description of what an em dash looks like and why it’s different to an en dash or a hyphen. As for the grammatical uses, hyphens are for like connected words like if you say half-sister. En dashes are technically for in between dates like July 19 – July 28. (People rarely use en dashes tho) Em dashes are similar to commas or parenthesis and have a wide variety of uses. For example you could say “I grabbed my AirPods—which had a cute Toothless case—and ran to the car, hoping I wouldn’t be late for school.”