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dash-

Gijoe

Senior Member
Korean
"I often think," she continued after a short pause, drawing nearer to the prince and smiling amiably at him as if to show that political and social topics were ended and the time had come for intimate conversation—"I often think how unfairly sometimes the joys of life are distributed. Why has fate given you two such splendid children? I don't speak of Anatole, your youngest. I don't like him," she added in a tone admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows. "Two such charming children. And really you appreciate them less than anyone, and so you don't deserve to have them."


What does the dash(-) indicate here?

Thank you
Are you reading "War and Peace"? It seems to be a Russian punctuation mark. There is not a shadow of doubt!👁 Smile :)
Last edited:
In my opinion it simply replaces a coma that should appear here, and also implies that you are about to read the rest of the interrupted quotation.
Thank you everybody
Yes it should be a comma, not a dash.
I don't agree with you this time, Mr E, because the dash tells us that Anna Pavlovna repeats the words "I often think". This would not be so clear with a comma.
Is that a 'standard' punctuational practice, Mr.T? ~ I can't say I've ever noticed it before (and it does strike me as pretty weird-looking).

(Surely the repetition of the words I often think tells us that Anna Pavlovna repeats the words I often think ...👁 Confused :confused:
)
We are talking about the em dash, of course, Mr E (known to some people as the ermm.....dash). Here's something from someone who thought they knew enough to go on record about it:

And don't use a dash for any purpose other than setting off a strong interruption: the dash is never used in place of a hyphen, after a colon or after a direct quotation, except sometimes in novels, but this is not a usage you should imitate.

This is a novel, of course, so perhaps almost anything goes. The suggestion is that a dash is used for a strong interruption, which is what I understood in this instance.
Ermmm ~


~ = 'strong interruption while I waver over a sensible reply.
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