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[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

The em dash as a concept is a relic. People now communicate those uses with a dash between spaces, or with two dashes.

It's like worrying which direction your quotation marks curl. They don't.

[-] wieson@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago

It's not worrying, it might be foreign to you.

»« is the style of direct speech markers used in German book setting. It's basically mirrored from the French style, who use «»

„“ is the style used in German handwritten texts and quotations

"" is the English style for direct speech and quotations

[-] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

In English, distinguishing those two symbols has become an affectation. The straight "" style is all anyone actually types, and it's unremarkable to see that style rendered or printed.

The length of a dash is even less important than that. Any style guide that's insistent about it might as well demand you type movie names in a different font. Can it be done? Sure. Does it have semantic value? Maybe. But the only people who'd care also know how to pronounce LaTeX.

This is the language that abandoned an entire letter because it was hard to print.

this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
197 points (93.0% liked)

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