Punctuation: dash

Dashes (–) are especially common in informal writing. They can be used in the same way as colons, semi-colons or brackets.

• There are three things I can never remember – names, faces, and I’ve forgotten the other.
• We had a great time in Greece – the kids really loved it.
• My mother – who rarely gets angry – really lost her temper.

A dash can introduce an afterthought, or something unexpected and surprising.

• We’ll be arriving on Monday morning – at least, I think so.
• And then we met Joseph – with Lisa, believe it or not!

note

For the use of hyphens (as in hard-working or co-operative), (see here).