punctuation - How is the spelling of a hyphenated word read?


How is the spelling of a hyphenated word usually read out loud?


For example, with "Anglo-Saxon", do we say:



"It is spelt as A—N—G—L—O—dash—S—A—X—O—N."



Or do we say:



"It is spelt as A—N—G—L—O—hyphen—S—A—X—O—N."




Answer



The simple answer is, you read out "hyphen". Generally not "dash" or other options. So, that's the answer!


em-dash would be "E M Hyphen D A S H". No mystery!


Anglo-Saxon would be "A, N, G, L, O, hyphen, S, A, X, O, N"


For comparison, "it's" would be "I, T, apostrophe, S".


(Just for your information, almost nobody knows what an "em-dash" is: it is a typographical term. Just FWIW you're probably just write "em dash" by the way, with no hyphen in that term.)


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