Russia and China - two of ...

[Odessa Dawn]

Russia and China - two of the five permanent members of the Security Council - have vetoed resolutions that sought to put concerted pressure on Damascus to end the conflict and agree to a political transition.

Source: Turkish PM slams UN Security Council over Syria - Israel News, Ynetnews

Why are hyphens being used in the above text?

​

 

[emsr2d2]

Russia and China - two of the five permanent members of the Security Council - have vetoed resolutions that sought to put concerted pressure on Damascus to end the conflict and agree to a political transition.

Source: Turkish PM slams UN Security Council over Syria - Israel News, Ynetnews

Why are hyphens being used in the above text?

​

There aren't any hyphens. The dashes after the word "China" and "Council" are there to separate the part which explains that those two countries are two of the permanent members of the Security Council. The writer could have used brackets instead around that section.

 

[Raymott]

Russia and China - two of the five permanent members of the Security Council- have vetoed resolutions that sought to put concerted pressure on Damascus to end the conflict and agree to a political transition.

Source: Turkish PM slams UN Security Council over Syria - Israel News, Ynetnews

Why are hyphens being used in the above text?

​

They are not hyphens. They are meant to be dashes.
" ... China -- two of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- have ... "

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello,

I most respectfully suggest that the person who wrote that sentence accidentally got confused between hyphens and

dashes.

I believe that it should be written:

Russia and China -- two of the permanent members of the Security Council -- have vetoed ....

As you know, parentheses could also be used for this extra but grammatically unnecessary information:

Russia and China (two of the permanent members of the Security Council) have vetoed ....

In my very humble opinion, Ynet News used dashes because it was confident that its readers already knew that

Russia and China are permanent Council members. The writer just wanted to remind his / her readers.

But if the writer felt that s/he were writing for people who might not already know this information. s/he might write:

Russia and China, two permanent members of the Security Council, have vetoed ....




James

 

[5jj]

I most respectfully suggest that the person who wrote that sentence accidentally got confused between hyphens and dashes.

I suggest that the person who wrote that sentence, like many of us, had not the slightest knowledge of the difference between hyphens and dashes (em or en). If you are writing for publication, your editor will impose his/her publisher's rules. If you are not writing for publication, don't worry. (Just my personal thought.)

 

[Barb_D]

I'm quite familiar with both em-dashes and en-dashes, as well as hyphens. Sometimes I am lazy and use a hyphen when I mean an em-dash myself. What you say about your publishing making it fit their style is completely correct. It doesn't pay to get wrapped around the axle if you know what it is SUPPOSED to be.

 

[Raymott]

I'm quite familiar with both em-dashes and en-dashes, as well as hyphens. Sometimes I am lazy and use a hyphen when I mean an em-dash myself. What you say about your publishing making it fit their style is completely correct. It doesn't pay to get wrapped around the axle if you know what it is SUPPOSED to be.

Sure, so do most of us use hyphens for dashes occasionally. But we leave a space on either side so that it cannot be a hyphen.
"Russia and China-two of the five ..." is not acceptable.

 

[emsr2d2]

I don't know about anyone else but I don't have a key on my keyboard which technically serves as a dash. The hyphen key simply types a hyphen. As Raymott said, if I want a hyphen then I use that key immediately between two words but without any spaces:

low-key

and if I want a dash, I put it between two words but with a space either side of the mark:

Russia and China - two leading members of the International Space Organisation - are going to build a space station.

When using MS Word, it seems to automatically recognise whether I want a hyphen or a dash, based on the spacing around it, and makes the mark longer or shorter as appropriate.

 

[Tdol]

I do the same and, to be fair to the writer of the article, they did the same. If my word processor sorts the hyphen/dash out automatically, fine, but on the web I just use spaces rather than --.

 

[emsr2d2]

I do the same and, to be fair to the writer of the article, they did the same. If my word processor sorts the hyphen/dash out automatically, fine, but on the web I just use spaces rather than --.

I agree. I have never used --

 

[Tdol]

I think it's not much of an issue in BrE- it seems to be taken more seriously in other variants.

 

[5jj]

I think it's not much of an issue in BrE- it seems to be taken more seriously in other variants.

I agree. I had not heard of em and en dashes until I joined this forum. On the rare occasions I put pen to paper, I have always used a longer line for the dash, but when I type I have always used the - for both. Like ems and Tdol, I use spaces before and after a dash - like that.

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree. I had not heard of em and en dashes until I joined this forum. On the rare occasions I put pen to paper, I have always used a longer line for the dash, but when I type I have always used the - for both. Like ems and Tdol, I use spaces before and after a dash - like that.

I remember learning about em and en dashes both when I learnt to type and when I did my proofreading course. However, I don't remember my old manual typewriter having separate keys for the two (although it might have and I've just forgotten). Computer keyboards certainly don't though. Like 5jj, when I write by hand, the two are clearly different lengths but I still leave a gap either side of the dash, and not of a hyphen.