User:Jacobbrett/English Punctuation Guide

N.B. Usage of preferred characters is optional and sometimes unwarranted.

Preferred Unicode characters for English punctuation

Preferred		Usage	Deprecates
‐	Hyphen	Joins words and syllables of a word (e.g. co‐operate).	-	Hyphen-minus
‒	Figure Dash	used as a dash within numbers (e.g. 555‒1212).
–	En Dash	Separate range of numbers (e.g. 1989‒90).
−	Minus sign	Indicates subtraction.
—	Em Dash	Separate thoughts—like this.	--	Hyphen-minus ×2
―	Horizontal bar aka Quotation dash	Introduces quoted text in some cases (non‐standard for English dialect).
‘	Left single quotation mark	Indicates start of quoted text.	'	Apostrophe
’	Right single quotation mark Apostrophe	Indicates end of quoted text, or omitted characters.
′	Prime	Minutes; feet
“	Left double quotation mark	Indicates start of quoted text.	"	Quotation mark
”	Right double quotation mark	Indicates end of quoted text.
″	Double prime	Seconds; inches
〃	Ditto mark	Indicates that the word(s) or figure(s) below which it is placed are to be repeated.
…	Horizontal ellipsis	Indicates intentional omission in original text…or a pause in speech or thought.	...	Full stop ×3
×	Multiplication	Indicate multiplication operation.	x	(the letter ‘X’) when used to indicate multiplication
⁄	Solidus	Indicate arbitrary fractions (e.g. 15⁄16).	/	Slash