Punctuation: adding, brackets and dashes (SVFL)

Punctuation marks are small signs in a text, that show the reader how a sentence is organised. They can show things like: where a sentence begins and ends; which words belong together; or whether a sentence is a question, for example. But punctuation can show many different things: Det ska bli varmt och soligt (enligt mamma) så vi ses klockan 11. Jag tar med kakor (dina favoriter) och saft. We can use these signs, parentheses when we want to add something without starting a new sentence, interject something.

It can for example be to clarify, or explain something. Parentheses are always used in pairs, and the information inside them is an addition. The sentence should make sense even if you skip the part in parentheses. There are more ways to interject something, for example by using commas... or these little lines: dashes.

When using dashes, the interjection stands out more than with parentheses. Dashes create a stronger interruption than parentheses do: draws attention to the added information. Det ska bli varmt och soligt – enligt mamma – så vi ses klockan 11. Jag tar med kakor – dina favoriter – och saft. Just as with parentheses, the sentence should still make sense even if you skip the interjection.

Dashes are generally used in pairs, but if the addition comes at the end of a sentence, a single dash may be used: Pappa, var är kniven – vänta, jag hittade den. The dash can also be used to create a little pause before new information that is a bit unexpected. Michael skulle handla mjölk – men köpte en dammsugare. Dashes can almost always be replaced by another punctuation mark, like a comma, full stop, colon, or semicolon. The biggest difference is that the dash creates a stronger pause, adds emphasis to the pause.

Dashes can also be used to show a connection between two things, such as between numbers. Then it usually means “to”. Butiken är öppen 9–5 Svara på frågorna 1–12. Dashes can also connect teams in competitions, or places. Finalen Irland-Bulgarien Sträckan Malmö-Berlin But the dash is never used for combining words or expressions into one word.

For that, we use a similar punctuation mark: the hyphen. The hyphen is shorter than the dash, and is used to combine different things into one word, such as: att-göra-lista 50-åring New York-resa These are often words with numbers, foreign words and expressions, or combinations of words that we aren’t used to yet. Hyphens can also be used to divide words into parts, such as syllables. For example to clarify a pronunciation, or emphasise the word. det kommer att bli fan-tast-iskt!

or when breaking a word, to show that it belongs with the continuation: för- och nackdelar Hyphens are also used when you arrive at the end of a line, and have to divide a word into two parts: Jag hoppas att den här picknicken blir rom- antisk... So ... to interject something in Swedish, we can use parentheses, commas, or dashes. Dashes can also show connections between numbers and places. And with hyphens we tie expressions together into one word, or divide the word into parts.