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Heralding Heretic Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Dashes or commas

Greetings,

I'm struggling to understand when I should use dashes and when commas. For example in the following sentence:

One day—I must have been twelve years old at the time—we were strolling through the city when a quarrel erupted between us.

Is this correct or should I use commas instead?

Thanks.
  

Top answer

Heralding Heretic Is this correct or should I use commas instead? Commas are not possible there, but parentheses are (though they are not recommended). M-dashes are an acceptable way of setting off incidental information—in informal writing—which is not necessarily structurally attached to the matrix sentence.

— Mister Micawber

  • Heralding Heretic Is this correct or should I use commas instead?
  • Commas are not possible there, but parentheses are (though they are not recommended).
  • M-dashes are an acceptable way of setting off incidental information—in informal writing—which is not necessarily structurally attached to the matrix sentence.
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3 Answers
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Heralding HereticIs this correct or should I use commas instead?
Commas are not possible there, but parentheses are (though they are not recommended). M-dashes are an acceptable way of setting off incidental information—in informal writing—which is not necessarily structurally attached to the matrix sentence.
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A more structurally sound rewording is
eg One day, when I must have been twelve years old, we were strolling through the city when a quarrel erupted between us.

Clive
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