When to put a hyphen after po. When is a dash added in Russian? Rules: when to use a hyphen

The Russian language is large and complex. One of the reasons for the difficulty of learning the Russian language is the flexibility of its grammatical structures. Remembering the entire set of rules for placing punctuation marks is an almost impossible task even for those who consider Russian their native language. One of these symbols is the usual dash.

Rules for placing dashes in texts

The following rules describe when to use a dash in a sentence (examples in parentheses to illustrate the rules). So, in what cases is a dash placed:

1. Between the predicate and the subject, if the predicate is a noun and is used in the nominative case. (A wolf is an animal. A good car is a man’s dream.) If the predicate is followed by the particle not, then the dash is omitted. (A car is not a luxury.);

2. Between the predicate and the subject, if the subject is in the nominative case and the predicate is the indefinite form of the verb, or they are both verbs of the indefinite form. (The dream is to live forever. To sleep is not to drag bags.);

3. A dash is placed before this if the predicate is attached to the subject with this word. This rule applies to the words this is, here, this means (Lion is a beast. Flying is a worthy dream.);

4. Before generalizing words, after enumerations. (Eye, nose, mouth - everything is on the face. Neither tears, nor prayer - nothing touched him.);

5. Before the application, if it is at the end of the sentence. (He wanted one thing - money and only money.);

6. Between a pair of predicates or sentences, if the second contains a sharp contrast or unexpected addition to the first. (I arrived - and everyone was already here! I wanted to drink - I dropped the glass.);

7. Between sentences or words joined without conjunctions to emphasize sharp contrasts. (Not the water in that cup - the nectar of the gods.);

8. Between sentences, if the second contains a conclusion from the first or a result and is not connected by a conjunction. (Palm itches - there will be money. Fingers in the socket - electric shock.);

9. Between the subordinate and main clauses, if the main clause comes second and is not joined by a conjunction. (They cut down the forest - the chips fly.);

10. At the point where simple sentences split into two groups of words, if this cannot be expressed in any other way. (The enemy is in dust! And the sergeant is given a medal “For Courage.”);

11. In the middle of the sentence, two dashes highlight explanations and additions if the selection in brackets reduces the expressiveness of the text. (And Pakhomych - a rare bastard and a weasel - did not come at all.);

12.In a sentence in the middle, two dashes highlight a common application if it is necessary to show its independence. (Behind the wall of the house - an ordinary rural five-walled house - a whole detachment was hiding.);

13. In the middle of the sentence, two dashes highlight a group of homogeneous members. (Usually building materials - boards, nails, logs and staples - are prepared in advance.) If such a listing is preceded by a generalizing word, then a dash is needed only at the end. (The entire squad, namely: Petya, Vasya, Igor and Semyon, did not go to the line.);

14.After a comma, when it is necessary to separate the main sentence from a group of subordinate clauses and emphasize the breakdown of the whole into parts. (Whether the world will end or not, no one knows.);

15.After the decimal point, when you need to indicate an increase or decrease in the period. (People fly into space, harnessed atomic energy, write brilliant music, create unprecedented structures - but you don’t take out the trash!);

16.Between words, if these words limit a spatial, temporal or quantitative interval. (Flight Ankara-Yerevan. Break 5-7 minutes.);

17. Between the components of the name of the doctrine or scientific institutions. (Bio-Savart-Laplace law.);

As you can see, there are quite a lot of rules explaining when a dash is placed, and not all cases when this punctuation mark can be used are even listed here. Also, information on which sentences contain a dash can be found in the article “?”.

Dash or colon

When writing, people often confuse when to use a dash and when to use a colon. As a rule, a colon is placed before an enumeration, with or without a generalizing word; before direct speech; before two or more sentences not connected by conjunctions, one of which explains the other.

Have you often wondered when writing when to put a colon and when to put a dash? Probably often, because these punctuation marks, like any other, require adherence to certain rules, although in some cases they are very similar. But we’ll talk about which ones later in the article.

Relationship between generic words and colon or dash

When discussing when to put a colon and when to put a dash, first of all you need to mention those sentences in which homogeneous members are used, and with them there is a generalizing word. It is after it, before the listing, that the colon is necessary.

So, for example, in the sentence: “ You could always find interesting things in his backpack: pebbles, bolts, metal balls and even a fly in a matchbox", the list is preceded by the general word " things”, after which in this situation a colon is placed.

If the generalizing word is found after the listing, then a dash must be placed in front of it. For example: " Pebbles, bolts, metal balls and even a fly in a matchbox - these are the things that can always be found in Petka’s backpack».

By the way, after a generalizing word you can often find a dash, which is also the right option. For example: " Everything is different there - the language, way of life and even values».

Colon and dash in non-union complex sentences

There are several cases when a colon is placed in complex non-union sentences:

1. If the second part of a complex sentence explains the content of the first. Then the conjunctions “namely” or “like that” can be placed between them. For example: “Everything in nature spoke of joy: the sun shone brightly from a clear sky, and birds sang in different voices.”
2. If the second part of the sentence indicates the reason for what is mentioned in the first part. Then, by the way, it is easy to put the conjunctions “because” and “since” between the parts. For example: “Ivan was a very distrustful person: his close people let him down too often.”
3. Another case where a colon is placed between parts of a sentence is where one part warns that the presentation will continue further. In such sentences, the first part usually uses one of the verbs: see, know, hear, feel, etc. For example: “Peter and Anna knew: they would definitely have a large and noisy family.” As you can see, between the parts of this sentence and similar ones you can put the conjunction “what”, thus turning it into a complex sentence.

An acceptable option is also to use a dash instead of a colon in these sentences. Compare:

• He understood that something irreparable had happened..
• It’s better not to say something like that in front of him - he might get offended.
• It seemed to them that just a little more and everything would come true.

By the way, sentences with a warning about the continuation of the story should be distinguished from complex sentences that do not contain one. In this case, a comma is placed between the parts. For example: " I know they will live with us».

When to put a colon in a sentence with direct speech

In those sentences where direct speech is used, a colon is placed after the words of the author, for example:

• On the way home, Nina plaintively asked Sonya: “Will you ever be able to forgive me?”
• She said through her teeth: “If you knew how much I hate this life.”

Sentences that include direct speech must be distinguished from complex constructions. In the latter, a comma is placed before the subordinate clause, for example:

• On the way home, Nina plaintively asked Sonya whether she could count on forgiveness.
• She said through clenched teeth that she absolutely hated this life.

In what cases is a colon placed in the title?

The rules for writing headings require special explanation. If the title of a text is divided into two parts, and the first of them (nominative) names a person, problem, place of action, etc., and the second specifies the meaning of the first, then a colon is placed between them.

Let's look at examples of such headers:

• Sore throat: signs and methods of treating the disease.
• Mikhail Bulgakov: unknown facts from the writer’s biography.
• Ten days in India: a land of wonders and contrasts.

So what should you put - a dash or a colon?

In conclusion, we can say that in modern language it is becoming increasingly easier to decide when to use a colon and when it is better to use a dash, since the dash is in this " fight” often comes out victorious.

According to the famous D. E. Rosenthal, the dash is a freer sign, often “ coming" and into the possessions of the colon. What explains this? The linguist believes that a dash in a sentence performs not only purely syntactic functions, but also gives it an emotionally expressive coloring. Obviously, this is why authors love to use it so much in fiction and periodicals. As an example, we can cite several phrases from newspapers: “ The elections are over - we can take stock" or " Experts call this process quite natural - the demand for land has increased».

This means that you can decide when to put a colon in a sentence, and when to put a dash, based on the author’s preferences.

The difference between a hyphen, dash and minus sign is solely their length. 🙂
If a blogger or simply “who writes on the Internet” wants to show off his knowledge, show off, show off to his girlfriend, then the easiest way to do this is to become an expert in spelling and punctuation. 🙂 And what’s typical is that you can do this without leaving your couch and completely free of charge!

There are so many things in the world that I don’t need at all. (Socrates)

However, sometimes you can get something useful from such completely unnecessary things. Especially if you don’t want to look like a layman. It's not a shame not to know everything, it's a shame not to know a damn thing. 🙂

As you know, along with the well-known genders (male, female and asexual, i.e., neuter), there are other genders, for example, blue, pink, homosexual, transvestite, etc. In addition, along with the “regular” spelling There is also computer spelling, which makes adjustments to the “usual”.

Many people are not aware of the fact that in the Russian typographic tradition there are three types of horizontal lines: a dash, a minus sign and a hyphen.
Therefore, the vast majority of modern printed matter is made by designers who know only one sign: the hyphen. This happened because on the keyboard of a personal computer only it is available without additional effort. And lazy people, of course, don’t need that much knowledge; they only need one button.

The hyphen, minus and dash differ from each other, first of all, by their scope, and secondly by their length.

Minus: -

And you won’t notice the difference when reading. And why bother with these lengths?

On an enlarged scale, the relationships between the signs are more clear.

Minus:
:

Examples are given from the Times typeface. In any font except monospace, the difference between characters should be the same.

The hyphen is used in words and phrases in the Russian language:

• to attach particles (someone, somewhere);
• to add prefixes (firstly, in Russian);
• to separate complex words (physics and mathematics, blue-black);
• as a sign of contraction (physical-ra);
• in phrases (business lunch, internet cafe);
• as a transfer sign (almost never found on the Internet today)
  etc.

The hyphen in good fonts is aligned with the height of lowercase characters, since it is extremely rare among uppercase characters (cf. “YO-MOYO” and “YO-MOYE”).
The minus sign and the hyphen are not, contrary to popular belief, the same sign. The minus sign must be the same width as the plus sign (and all numbers in any font are always made monospaced, otherwise typesetters would be nuts about adjusting them in tables). This is especially noticeable in the “plus-minus” (and “minus-plus”) sign.

The main difference between a hyphen and a dash, even if someone depicted them as the same length, is that the dash is separated by spaces on both sides, while the hyphen is not separated at all.
The dash is usually made by type designers the width of the letter M (and is called in English, respectively, em dash).

The illustration shows the difference between a dash, a minus sign and a hyphen. Please note: the minus sign takes up the same amount of space in width as any number:

(This is also the Times)

In some fonts you can also find an underscore. It is not needed in writing and does not exist at all in typography. It first appeared on typewriters as the cheapest way to make horizontal rulers.

It should also be added that OpenOffice has an autocorrect that “calculates” the difference between a hyphen and a dash and corrects the text. WordPress doesn’t know about such subtleties and, therefore, you have to copy-paste the dash or use a table of symbols in the visual editor (when it’s not a bummer, of course).

So, THE DASH IS PUT-I-I-I….

1. Between the subject and the predicate with a zero copula, if the main members are expressed by a noun, infinitive, cardinal numeral in the nominative case, as well as a phrase containing the indicated parts of speech. (And this phrase, comrades, is complete nonsense :)

Is it really possible, I thought, that my only purpose on earth is to destroy the hopes of others? (M.Yu. Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”)

Love brightens life.
Love is the charm of nature... (M.M. Zoshchenko, “Blue Book. Love”)

Love is a form, and my own form is already decaying.
(I.S. Turgenev, “Fathers and Sons”)

Let me note by the way: all poets are dreamy friends of love.
(A.S. Pushkin, “Eugene Onegin”)

But genius and villainy are two incompatible things. (A.S. Pushkin, “Mozart and Salieri”)

- Prokatilov is power! - the company began to console Struchkov.
(A.P. Chekhov, “On a Nail”)

Know that my destiny is to cherish dreams
And there with a sigh in the heights
Scatter tears of fire. (A.A. Fet, “Rocket”)

It's typical foppishness to rob a poor widow. (I. Ilf and E. Petrov, “Twelve Chairs”)

2. Before the words, this means that they stand between the subject and the predicate.

But reducing the sum of human lives by 50 million years is not criminal. (E. Zamyatin, “We”)

But we know that dreams are a serious mental illness.
(E. Zamyatin, “We”)

To live forever amidst torment,
amidst painful doubts -
This is the strong ideal,
Without creating anything, hating, despising
And shining like crystal. (N. Gumilev, “Evil genius, king of doubts...”)

3. If the subject is expressed by a personal pronoun, and the predicate by a noun in the nominative case, a dash is placed in the following cases:

a) with the logical selection of a pronoun:

She is the culprit of that transformation. (I.A. Goncharov, “Oblomov”)
You are a staircase in a big, foggy house. (V.V. Nabokov, “The Staircase”)

b) when contrasted:

I thirst and hunger, and you are a barren flower,
And meeting you is more bleak than granite. (B.L. Pasternak, “Miracle”)

Here we are - accomplices of the gatherings.
Here Anna is nature's accomplice. (B.A. Akhmadulina. Anne Kalandadze)

c) with reverse word order:

The swan is here, taking a deep breath,
She said: “Why far away?
Know that your destiny is near,
After all, this princess is me.”
(A.S. Pushkin, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”)

d) with structural parallelism of parts of a sentence:

He is all a child of goodness and light,
He is all a triumph of freedom! (A.A. Blok, “Oh, I want to live crazy!”)

4. If there is a pause in place of the missing main or secondary member in incomplete sentences.

Wandering his eyes, Ivan Savelyevich stated that on Thursday afternoon he got drunk alone in his office at Variety, after which he went somewhere, but he doesn’t remember where, somewhere else he drank starka, and where he doesn’t remember where It was lying under the fence, but again he doesn’t remember where. (M.A. Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita”)

In winter there was a lot of light on Peschanaya Street, it was gray and deserted, in spring it was sunny and cheerful, especially when looking at the white wall of the archpriest’s house, at the clean glass, at the gray-green tops of the poplars in the blue sky. (I.A. Bunin, “The Cup of Life”)

Fire is met with fire,
Trouble - trouble and illness are cured. (W. Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”)

5. Intonation dash between any members of the sentence.

The dead lay there and babbled a terrible, unknown speech.
(A.S. Pushkin, “Feast during the Plague”)

The prince removed the lock, opened the door and stepped back in amazement, even shuddering: Nastasya Filippovna stood in front of him.
(F.M. Dostoevsky, “The Idiot”)

This is a giant of thought, the father of Russian democracy and a person close to the emperor. (I. Ilf, E. Petrov, “Twelve Chairs”)

6. In the notes, the word being explained is separated from the explanation by a dash (regardless of the form of expression of the predicate).

Sibyl of Samia - from the name of the island of Samos. (D.S. Buslovich, “People, Heroes, Gods”)

7. With generalizing words:

a) if the generalizing word comes after homogeneous members of the sentence:

Disgrace, execution, dishonor, taxes, labor, and famine - you have experienced everything. (A.S. Pushkin, “Boris Godunov”)

The triumph of self-preservation, salvation from pressing danger - that’s what filled his entire being at that moment. (F.M. Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)

b) when a generalizing word comes before homogeneous members, a colon is placed after it, and a dash is placed after homogeneous members, if after them the sentence continues:

Everything around: the blood-stained field, the French lying in a heap everywhere, scattered dirty rags covered in blood - it was disgusting and disgusting. (L.N. Tolstoy, “War and Peace”)

A crowd of buildings: human buildings, barns, cellars - filled the courtyard. (N.V. Gogol, “Dead Souls”)

8. Between words and numbers to indicate spatial, temporal or quantitative limits (“from ... to”).

...It was once a landmark along the large waterway Voronezh - Azov. (M.A. Sholokhov, “Quiet Don”)

Note. If you can insert or between nouns - proper names or numbers, then a hyphen is placed.

Two or three former literary celebrities who happened to be in St. Petersburg at that time and with whom Varvara Petrovna had long maintained the most elegant relations also appeared.
(F.M. Dostoevsky, “Demons”)

9. To isolate the application if it is explanatory in nature.

Another matter - getting money - encountered obstacles in the same way. (L.N. Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”)

10. Before the application at the end of the sentence, if it is logically highlighted.

In my room I found the clerk of the neighboring estate, Nikita Nazarych Mishchenka. (A.I. Kuprin, “Olesya”)

He walked the entire Bogoyavlenskaya Street; Finally it went downhill, my feet were sliding in the mud, and suddenly a wide, foggy, seemingly empty space opened up - a river. (F.M. Dostoevsky, “Demons”)

11. To isolate common agreed definitions at the end of a sentence, especially when listing:

This is in some windows, and in others hundreds of ladies' hats appeared, both with feathers and without feathers, and with buckles, and without them, and hundreds of shoes - black, white, yellow, leather, satin, suede, and with straps, and with pebbles. (M.A. Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita”)

12. To isolate minor members of a sentence, expressed by an infinitive, of an explanatory nature, both at the end and in the middle of a sentence:

The cat Vasily took spring leave to get married. (A. and B. Strugatsky, “Monday begins on Saturday”)

Because of Sibgatov, Dontsova even changed the direction of her scientific interests: she delved into the pathology of bones out of one impulse - to save Sibgatov. (A.I. Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”)

13. For isolating inserted structures.

They killed him - what a strange word! - in a month, in Galicia.
(I.A. Bunin, “Cold Autumn”)

But don't try to keep it for yourself
Given to you by heaven:
Convicted - and we know it ourselves -
We spend, not save. (A.A. Akhmatova, “We have the freshness of words...”)

14. Between parts of a complex sentence, if the sentence contains opposition or indicates a rapid change of events.

The horses walked at a pace - and soon stopped. (A.S. Pushkin, “The Captain’s Daughter”)

The hetman reigned - and wonderfully. (M.A. Bulgakov, “The White Guard”)

15. For intonation separation of subordinate and main clauses (often in sentences with parallelism in structure).

If death is light, I die,
If I die, I will burn brightly.
And I don’t forgive my tormentors,
But I thank them for the torment. (Z. Gippius, “Martyr”)

And these days the air smells of death:
To open a window is to open the veins. (B.L. Pasternak, “Rupture”)

16. In non-union complex sentences, if:

a) the second part is opposed to the first:

They were chasing me - I was not embarrassed in spirit. (A.S. Pushkin, “Boris Godunov”)

Do good - he won’t say thank you. (A.S. Pushkin, “Boris Godunov”)

b) the second part contains a consequence, result, conclusion from what is said in the first:

Veli - I will die; ordered - I will breathe only for you. (A.S. Pushkin, “The Stone Guest”)

I met you - and everything is gone
In the obsolete heart came to life;
I remembered the golden time -
And my heart felt so warm. (F.I. Tyutchev, “K.B.”)

I'm dying - I have no reason to lie. (I.S. Turgenev, “Fathers and Sons”)

c) the second part contains a comparison with what is said in the first:

It will pass - as if the sun will shine!
If he looks, he will give you a ruble. (N.A. Nekrasov, “Frost, Red Nose”)

d) the sentence expresses a rapid change of events, an unexpected addition:

Come to me for a glass of rum,
Come - we'll shake off the old days. (A.S. Pushkin, “Today I’ll be at home in the morning...”)

e) the first part indicates the time or condition of the action referred to in the second part:

Condition:

God willing - ten, twenty years,
He will live twenty-five and thirty. (A.S. Pushkin, “The Miserly Knight”);

I don’t give a damn, Varvara Ardalionovna; anything - at least now fulfill your intention. (F.M. Dostoevsky, “The Idiot”)

Time:

And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn,
And the azure, and the midday heat...
The time will come - the Lord will ask the prodigal son:
“Were you happy in your earthly life?” (I.A. Bunin, “Both flowers and bumblebees...”)

f) with the explanatory meaning of the second part (the conjunction that can be inserted before it); however, a colon is usually used in this case, compare:

I know there's a nail in my boot
more nightmarish than Goethe's fantasy! (V.V. Mayakovsky, “Cloud in Pants”)

I will tell you with final directness:
It's all just nonsense - sherry brandy - my angel.
(O. Mandelstam, “I’ll tell you...”)

g) the second part is a connecting clause (it is preceded by or can be inserted the word this):

State of screaming stones -
Armenia, Armenia!
Hoarse mountains calling to arms -
Armenia, Armenia! (O. Mandelstam, “Armenia”)

17. In direct speech.

And NOT PUT-I-I-I….

Between the subject and the predicate, expressed by nouns, if:

1. Before the predicate there is a negation, an introductory word, an adverb, a conjunction, a particle:

I really regret that my husband is not a doctor. (A.P. Chekhov, “Name Day”)

One more question: how do you feel about the fact that the Moon is also the work of the mind? (V.M. Shukshin, “Cut”)

Compare if there is a pause:

Styopa was well known in Moscow theater circles, and everyone knew that this man was not a gift. (M.A. Bulgakov, “The Master and Margarita”)

This is how they begin to understand.
And in the noise of a running turbine
It seems that the mother is not a mother,
that you are not you, that home is a foreign land. (B.L. Pasternak, “This is how they begin...”)

2. Before the predicate there is a secondary member of the sentence related to it:

[Trofimov:] All of Russia is our garden.
(A.P. Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard”)

Compare if there is a pause: Mr. G-v serves, and Mr. Shatov is a former student. (F.M. Dostoevsky, “Demons”)

Drowning out the whisper of inspired superstitions, common sense tells us that life is just a crack of weak light between two ideally black eternities. (V.V. Nabokov, “Other Shores”)

3. The nominal compound predicate precedes the subject:

This valley is a wonderful place! (M.Yu. Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”)

4. The subject in combination with the predicate is a phraseological unit:

“Another person’s soul is dark,” Bunin answers and adds: “No, our own is much darker.” (I. Ilyin, “Creativity of I.A. Bunin”)

5. The subject is expressed by a personal pronoun, and the predicate by a noun in the nominative case:

Yes, Luce is the type. Of course, he is a bore, but his vocabulary is gigantic. (J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye)

6. In conversational style sentences:

What hair! Nonsense hair! This is what I say! It’s even better, if it starts to fight, that’s not what I’m afraid of... (F.M. Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)

on these summer evenings...

Conclusion

1. Particularly tedious experts count more than 50 cases when it is necessary to put a dash.
2. Great quotes. For these reasons alone, you should read this post.
3. “How (how) does the sound of a hyphen differ from a dash in oral speech?”
In oral speech, the hyphen is not emphasized in any way, and the dash sounds like “eloquent silence” for 0.5 seconds. 🙂
4. Hyphens/dashes are only relevant for printed texts. For handwritten creations it has no meaning.
➡
➡
➡
➡
and others.

This concludes the most boring post. But the study of literacy is not finished. 🙂

In addition, you need to remember that in the case when you need to put a sign between numbers or words reflecting quantitative uncertainty, you should put a hyphen rather than a dash:

She had not left the house for five to seven days.

Add 3-4 teaspoons of anise and dill to the sauce.

Before the generalizing word

The obligatory case when a dash is placed is a sentence in which a generalizing word follows homogeneous members of the sentence. It is preceded by a dash.

Currants, gooseberries, raspberries, shadberry - the girl managed to try all the berries this summer.

Distant relatives, friends whom he had not seen for a long time, half-forgotten colleagues from his old job - for some reason they all began to come to mind lately.

Before the application at the end of the sentence

If an application at the absolute end of a sentence needs to be logically highlighted, this is shown in writing with a dash:

When we entered, his cat ran out to meet us - fluffy Aliska.

All the way my son kept telling me about his new acquaintance, Boris Ivanovich.

How I would like to chat with you as a specialist about my favorite business - construction.

Before the minor member of a sentence, which is expressed by an infinitive

If a minor member of a sentence is expressed by an infinitive and is explanatory in nature, it is separated by a dash.

Finally, a plan matured and a decision was born - to take the first step and make peace.

A child who hates school has only one option - to use every opportunity to legally skip school.

For inserted structures

Dash marks surround any characters, including those that end with a question mark or exclamation mark. This is actually the case when a dash is placed between sentences.

And these little newborn kittens - I don’t even want to think about it! - live in such conditions.

All good students - how could it be otherwise? - must be passionate about their future profession.

In non-union proposals

In cases where a dash is placed, the non-union sentence contains the following parts that are opposed to each other:

We officially invited him to visit - he didn’t even deign to answer.

Give her homework and she will pretend that nothing happened.

In addition, a dash is placed before that part of a non-union sentence, the meaning of which is to express the conclusion, result or consequence of what is said in the previous part of the complex sentence:

Mom came - and all the sorrows, as always, seemed small and were quickly forgotten.

When designing direct speech and dialogue

A dash in a complex sentence is placed, in addition, when forming direct speech, it separates the words of the author from the quotation:

"I have already come! - the daughter shouted cheerfully and, after a pause, asked mysteriously: “Do you know who I saw today?”

When formatting a dialogue, a dash is also placed before each statement:

- Is it really impossible to learn to keep secrets? - Mitya’s father asked sternly.

- I can. “I keep it, I just didn’t know that I had to keep it from you too,” the kid answered lostly.

In addition, there are other special cases when a dash is placed in a sentence, but basically all of them are variants or modifications of those listed.

A dash is placed in a simple sentence in two cases:

1. between subject and predicate;
2. if the offer is incomplete.

Dash between subject and predicate

A dash is placed between the subject and the predicate if:

• Both main members of the sentence are expressed by nouns in the nominative case:
  Moscow is the capital of our Motherland.
• Both main members of the sentence are expressed by cardinal numbers:
  Three times three is nine.
• Both main members of the sentence are expressed by an infinitive, or one of the main members of the sentence is expressed by an infinitive, and the second by a noun:
  Smoking is harmful to health. Smoking is harmful to health.
• Before the words this means:
  Reading is the best teaching. Water is the source of life.

A dash is not placed between the subject and the predicate if:

• The subject is expressed by a personal pronoun:
  I am a citizen of Russia.
• With the predicate there is a negative particle not:
  Irina is not my sister.
  It is necessary to distinguish which member of the sentence the particle not belongs to, for example, in the sentence “ Living life is not a field to cross"The particle NOT does not refer to the predicate, but to the object, therefore a dash is placed in the sentence.
• The predicate is introduced by comparative conjunctions as, as if, as if:
  The lake is like a mirror.
• If there is an introductory word between the subject and the predicate:
  My brother is, of course, a good person.

Dash in an incomplete simple sentence

A sentence is incomplete in which any member of the sentence is missing, but there is a place for it in the sentence and it is easily restored from the context.
For example:
They sent letters to everyone, but they didn’t send them to me (the dash replaces “letters”).
Take care of your dress again, and your honor from a young age (a dash replaces “take care”).

Attention! It is necessary to distinguish between incomplete sentences with the omission of one of the main members of the sentence and one-part sentences.

In one-part sentences, the second main member is not required; without it, the meaning of the sentence is clear. In one-part sentences there is no place for the second main member of the sentence.

In incomplete sentences it can always be restored.
For example:
The mice chewed up all the food. Now they took up the books (it is clear from the context that the mice took up the books). They are knocking on the door (a one-part sentence that does not require a subject).