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Em Dash / En Dash / Hyphen Usage Checker

Text

Scan text for likely dash misuse: a hyphen surrounded by spaces where an em dash is probably intended, a double hyphen left unconverted, and inconsistent spacing around em dashes across the same document

Paste any text and get every likely dash or hyphen mistake flagged in one pass: a hyphen with a space on both sides, which almost always means an em dash was intended instead of a hyphenated word; a run of two or more plain hyphens left over from a system that can't type an em dash directly; and em dashes that switch between a spaced style and a tight unspaced style within the same document. Each issue comes with its character offset and a short context snippet so you can jump straight to it. This is a punctuation-character heuristic over the raw text, not a grammar or style parser, so it catches the mechanical dash-usage mistakes without judging word choice or sentence structure.

grammarpunctuationcopyeditingdashhyphenem-dash

How to use Em Dash / En Dash / Hyphen Usage Checker

  • 1.Paste the text you want to check into the input box.
  • 2.Review the flagged issues: spaced hyphens, double hyphens, and any em dashes whose spacing doesn't match the rest of the document.
  • 3.Check the em dash and en dash counts and the dominant spacing style to decide which convention to standardize on.

Frequently asked questions

Why is 'word - word' flagged but 'well-known' isn't?
A hyphen with a space on both sides is very rarely a real hyphenated compound word; that pattern almost always means an em dash was intended. A hyphen directly between two words with no spaces, like in 'well-known', is left alone.
Will this flag command-line flags like '--help' in pasted code?
Yes, a double hyphen is flagged wherever it appears, including inside a code sample pasted alongside prose, since the tool only looks at raw characters and doesn't distinguish code from prose.
What counts as 'inconsistent' em dash spacing?
If a document uses both the spaced style (word — word) and the tight style (word—word) for its em dashes, every occurrence that doesn't match the document's majority style is flagged, so you can pick one convention and apply it everywhere.
Does this check grammar or spelling?
No, it only looks at dash and hyphen characters and the whitespace around them. It won't catch a missing word or a misspelling, and it doesn't understand sentence structure.

Use via API, SDK, or MCP

cURL# Free: 1,000 req/day · Pro: 10,000 req/day
curl -X POST https://api.utilix.tech/v1/tools/em-dash-usage-checker \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer utx_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text":"This is a test - with a spaced hyphen. This -- is a double hyphen."}'

Get an API key from your dashboard · Full API docs →

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