# Can I "fix" the mapping of -- to en dash with "Watched Words" (or in some other way)?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-fix-the-mapping-of-to-en-dash-with-watched-words-or-in-some-other-way/208118>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [November 3, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-fix-the-mapping-of-to-en-dash-with-watched-words-or-in-some-other-way/208118 "2021-11-03T14:57:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![gerhard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/gerhard/32/119479_2.png) [@gerhard](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gerhard)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2022, 11:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-fix-the-mapping-of-to-en-dash-with-watched-words-or-in-some-other-way/208118/5 "2022-10-20T11:34:54Z")

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> [@mattdm](#):
>
> Would y’all be open to amending the Markdown Typographer feature as used in Discourse to render `--` to em dash instead of en dash?

Hmm, we can’t simply change the rule, because the preferred usage of _en dash_ and _em dash_ seems to be different depending on your language and country. In German we definitely want _en dash_ when we write `--` and I think it might be the same in French and British English, at least that’s my impression after skimming [Dash - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash).

Would a site setting be enough? Should Discourse automatically switch between _en dash_ and _em dash_ based on the user’s interface language? I’m not sure what the best solution would be… 🤔

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