Punctuation Symbols — Copy and Paste (

Punctuation symbols.

Em dashes, smart quotes, section and pilcrow marks and more — tap to copy.

Tap any symbol to copy it.

Dashes & dots

Quotation marks

Marks & references

The marks that aren't on the keyboard

A keyboard only prints a handful of punctuation marks, but good typography needs more. The em dash (—) sets off a break in a sentence, the en dash (–) joins ranges like 9–5, and the ellipsis (…) is a single character rather than three periods. Curly quotes (" " ' ') are the typographically correct quotation marks — straight quotes are really meant for inches and feet. Beyond those, the section (§) and pilcrow (¶) marks reference parts of a document, and daggers († ‡) mark footnotes. All copy cleanly into documents, posts and messages.

Dashes: which one, and when

Three characters look similar and are not interchangeable. The hyphen (-) joins words: well-known, twenty-one. The en dash (– U+2013, –, Alt + 0150) is roughly the width of an "n" and spans ranges or connects paired items: pages 12–18, the 2024–25 season, the London–Paris route. The em dash (— U+2014, —, Alt + 0151) is the width of an "m" and marks a break in a sentence — like this one.

Style guides disagree on spacing: American usage typically closes the em dash up to the surrounding words, British usage often sets a spaced en dash in the same role. Either is defensible; mixing them in one document is not. One firm rule — never use an en dash in a range that already has "from" or "between", since from 1990–2000 is incorrect where from 1990 to 2000 is right.

Quotes, apostrophes and the ellipsis

Straight quotes (" and ') are a typewriter legacy that survived into ASCII. Typographically, prose wants directional quotes: “ U+201C and ” U+201D for double, ‘ U+2018 and ’ U+2019 for single. The right single quote doubles as the correct apostrophe, so it is it’s rather than it's.

Straight quotes still have legitimate uses: the prime ′ (U+2032) and double prime ″ (U+2033) denote feet and inches or minutes and seconds, and code must always use straight quotes — smart quotes pasted into a program are a classic source of syntax errors. The ellipsis … (U+2026, Alt + 0133) is one character rather than three periods, which keeps the spacing even and stops it breaking across lines.

Reference marks

§ U+00A7 (§, Alt + 0167) — the section sign, used for legal and technical citations. Doubled as §§ it means "sections" plural.
¶ U+00B6 (¶, Alt + 0182) — the pilcrow, marking a paragraph, and shown by word processors when you display formatting marks.
† U+2020 and ‡ U+2021 (&dagger;, &Dagger;) — footnote markers, used in that order after the asterisk in traditional typesetting.

These are ordinary text characters, so they copy cleanly into documents and survive plain-text contexts where superscript numbers would not.

FAQ

What's the difference between an em dash and an en dash?

The em dash (—) is the long one used to break up a sentence. The en dash (–) is shorter and joins ranges and scores, like 2010–2020 or a 3–1 win. The hyphen (-) is shorter still and joins words.

Why use curly quotes instead of straight quotes?

Curly (“typographic”) quotes are the proper quotation marks and look polished in prose. Straight quotes are technically prime marks for feet and inches; many editors auto-convert them, but you can copy the curly versions here.

When should I use an en dash instead of a hyphen?

Use a hyphen to join words (well-known) and an en dash for ranges and connections (pages 12–18, the London–Paris route). One firm rule: do not use an en dash in a range that already says "from" or "between" — write from 1990 to 2000, not from 1990–2000.

How do I type an em dash?

On Windows, Alt + 0151 using the numeric keypad; the en dash is Alt + 0150. On a Mac, Option + Shift + hyphen gives an em dash and Option + hyphen an en dash. In HTML the entities are — and –.

Should I ever use straight quotes?

Yes, in code and in measurements. Smart quotes pasted into a program are a common cause of syntax errors, and the prime ′ and double prime ″ are the correct marks for feet and inches or minutes and seconds. In ordinary prose, curly quotes are the typographically correct choice.