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ELA Drills, Intermediate: Main Idea 1. Which of the statements is best supported by the passage?
ELA Drills, Intermediate: Point of View. Is the statement in the video true or false?
ELA Drills, Intermediate: Textual Analysis 3. Which of the following best summarizes the author's feelings about welfare?
ELA 6: Gotta Dash 41 Views
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Description:
Today's video is brought to you by the em dash--not to be confused with the en dash, or the hundred meter dash.
Transcript
- 00:03
A dash might not look like the most complicated punctuation mark. [Kid dressed in a flash costume runs about]
- 00:06
It doesn't have the elegant loop of a question mark…
- 00:09
…or even the sleek, ground-hugging dots of an ellipsis. [Question mark and ellipsis sat at a table having tea]
- 00:13
But it turns out there's more than meets the eye to this little line.
- 00:16
But before we dive into everything dash related, it's worth pointing out that there are actually [Person dives into a pool]
Full Transcript
- 00:21
two kinds of dashes: the em dash and the en dash.
- 00:25
The longer of the two is the em dash.
- 00:28
It's about as long as the letter "M." Which kinda makes sense, based on its name and all. [The two types of dash]
- 00:33
The shorter one is the en dash.
- 00:35
And—surprise surprise—it's about as long as the letter "N."
- 00:39
The en dash is the simpler of the two dashes.
- 00:42
It's used to show ranges of things, like dates and numbers.
- 00:46
So if we had a sentence like: "Mr. Hart said we need to read pages 1 to 250 for tomorrow"… [Group of students using computers]
- 00:52
…then we could easily replace that "to" with a clean little en dash.
- 00:57
Finishing those 250 pages of readings, however won't be as easy. [Student reading books]
- 01:01
Em dashes have different, but equally important jobs.
- 01:04
Rumor has it, they have the code for the nukes… [Big red button appears]
- 01:07
Oh, and they're also pretty useful whenever sentences are cut short.
- 01:10
So…y'know, equal importance people.
- 01:13
Say you're yelling something to a friend across the street… [Man waving his arms around]
- 01:16
…when all of the sudden, a car screeches by, drives through a puddle that splashes [Car drives past and splashes the man]
- 01:20
you, and cuts your sentence short.
- 01:23
We could capture this by using an em dash, like so: [Man looks grossed out as he is covered in brown water]
- 01:26
"I yelled, "Hey, let's go to the—" when a car drove straight through a puddle and
- 01:31
soaked me."
- 01:32
Guess the only place you'll be going now is the Laundromat. [Man walks to a laundry]
- 01:36
We can also use em dashes to connect an independent clause with another independent clause, or
- 01:41
an appositive.
- 01:43
Say we've got a sentence like: "I've really gotta go: if I miss the last bus, I'm never [Bus driving away]
- 01:47
getting home."
- 01:48
Sure, we could connect those two independent clauses with a colon.
- 01:52
But for extra emphasis, we can throw in an em dash instead.
- 01:56
Just be sure to watch the time…no point in having a beautifully placed em dash if [Woman realises she has missed the bus]
- 02:00
you miss that bus.
- 02:02
And last but not least, we can also use em dashes to set off parentheticals.
- 02:07
In a sentence like: "The dogs (the ones we got from the pound) won't stop howling," parentheses [Dogs play fighting with each other]
- 02:13
do a great job of isolating the parenthetical.
- 02:16
Seriously.
- 02:17
Gold star, you guys. [Two gold stars appear]
- 02:18
But for an added dash of emphasis, we could replace them with em dashes.
- 02:22
But don't worry parentheses.
- 02:24
We still love you. [Love hearts]
- 02:25
But no matter which you pick, they won't help to quiet down those dogs.
- 02:29
Unless they like chewing up em dashes. [Dog biting on a em dash]
- 02:32
Worth a shot, oh well.
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