Comment by aspect0545
10 months ago
In German en dashes are more common than em dashes. I’ve been using them regularly for at least 20 years, both in German and English texts. I never liked it when people just threw in ordinary hyphen instead of an en dash, but few people note the difference.
Yes, this is regional – British usage tends to be an en dash surrounded by spaces, where American usage tends to be an em dash with no spaces.
All this has me thinking. Is the em-dash like an accent for machines?
I’m not sure about accent, but I have described their intense overuse of certain things as a verbal tic before.