The slash (/) did not make an appearance in the grammar book I used when I taught 7th grade English. The slash doesn’t make an appearance in any of the grammar books I have written. The slash does not make an appearance in the books I edit. However, some people apparently do use the slash, whether correctly or not, and whether appropriately or way too much. And the slash has uses in many different fields, as well as many different names besides slash.
- Sometimes the slash in writing means or. The slash should not be used where the word or could not be used in its place. For example
The pass/fail option was tried at the school last year.
I would prefer to simply use the word or rather than the slash. The above example is clear, but not all uses of the slash to mean or are quite as straightforward. And after all, or is only two letters!
Some writers use he/she, his/her, and him/her. I do not like that construction and would advise writers to use he or she instead. Better yet, rewrite the sentence to avoid needing the singular pronoun to indicate both genders. Although it is also acceptable to use they as a singular, I don’t like that either.
2. Sometimes the slash is used to replace the word and when joining two nouns. By replacing and with a slash, you suggest that both nouns are equally important. For example
The mother/executive has very little free time. (This sentence means someone who is both a mother and an executive, and both nouns are equally important.)
Using and instead of the slash here could be misleading and cause the reader to think we are talking about two different people, a mother and an executive (well, except for the use of the singular verb!). However, you can write the sentence without the slash by writing something like, “A mother who is also an executive has very little time.”
Obviously, I wouldn’t use a slash to mean and.
3. Slashes are commonly used in the phrase and/or, indicating that the two options are not mutually exclusive. For example
When you come to the potluck, bring a bottle of wine and/or an appetizer.
I wouldn’t do this either. Why not just write it out? “When you come to the potluck, you can bring a bottle of wine or an appetizer. If you want, you can bring both!”
Notice there is no space between the slash and the letters on either side of it.
Here are some other uses of slashes:
1.Slashes are used in web addresses (URLs): https://www.bigwords101.com/blog
2. Slashes are used to indicate a line break if you are quoting a poem or song lyrics. When using slashes in this way, you do include spaces before and after the slashes. This use of the slash is acceptable and proper in any type of writing.
Ring around the rosy / Pocketful of posies / Ashes ashes / We all fall down
3. Another use of the slash is to replace a hyphen or dash to make a connection between words or phrases. For example
The fantasy/fairy tale genre of books
4. Sometimes a slash is used in a two-letter expression such as w/0, meaning without. Another example is n/a meaning not applicable. Even the one-letter expression with is sometimes written as w/. This use of the slash would not be acceptable in formal writing, but could be used in a memo or in a chart or illustration.
5. This use of the slash may be antiquated, since proofs are not what they used to be before everything was computerized — however, a proofreader marks changes in the margin and separates the comments with a slash.
6. Editors use slashes when marking a manuscript by putting a slash through an uppercase letter that should be lowercase.
7. In math, slashes are used to indicate division; they are also used in fractions, such as 3/4.
8. In bowling a slash is used to indicate a spare.
9. Slashes are used in dates, but not in formal writing. For example, 8-30-15 to indicate August 30th, 2015.
In addition to a multitude of uses, slashes have many other names:
- The slash used by the proofreader is called a separatrix.
- The slash used when quoting poetry is thinner and is called a virgule.
- Fraction bar
- Solidus
- Stroke (when reading the mark aloud)
For more information about other uses and names for the slash, check out Wikipedia.
To sum up, the slash has very few uses in writing. Something can always be done to avoid using slashes. Some writers never use them. Some writers apparently use them liberally instead of dashes and who-knows-what else! But grammar books rarely talk about them because they really have little use in writing.
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I was actually surprised to learn what you had to say about the slash. I do occasionally use a slash, but not often. I hadn’t really thought about it meaning “or” or “and” until I read your article. When filing out forms, often the date is typed using the slash, as often that is the way the form is set-up. I do see the slash used online, probably much more than in printed stories or books. I guess I will think more about it when I use it in the future after reading your article. : )
I am with you! I never thought about the slash either. I never taught it when I taught junior high school, and it wasn’t in the grammar book. A reader wrote to me and said he sees it misused and overused all the time, so I thought I would check it out and write a post about it.Thank you for the comment!
You say: “For example, 8-30-15 to indicate August 30th, 2015.” But two-digit years are not to be recommended, because of the century problem. You might also use 8/30/2015, but most of the world uses 30/8/2015. To avoid the day/month confusion, the common Internet format would be 2015-08-30 and includes leading zeros (so that dates are sorted correctly) and the ISO format is 20150830. It’s a case where commerce and globalization will trump archaic styles.
I would add a good Wikipedia reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_date
Thanks!
Here are some generally accepted terms that use slashes. I usually add such terms to my style guides when relevant.
client/server
I/O (input/output)
AM/FM
either/or proposition
on/off switch
price/earnings (and other ratios)
read/write permission
anytime/anywhere access
Thanks for these. Yes, I have seen many of these and the slash is pretty standard in them.
Hi Arlene,
Just a brief remark on of your points/comments…..:
I frequently use the slash to indicate two options when giving examples to my students in order to reinforce vocabulary whilst teaching a given structure i.e. ‘She is/was a remarkably/very talented person’;
by the same token isn’t the use of ‘him/her’ or ‘s/he’ also indicating 2 possible options…?
Kind regards
CB
Not sure about that. He and she are often not both viable options, depending on how you think about it. I just don’t like the construction with the slash. I think the slash if often unclear as to whether it means “and” or “or.” In your examples, is and was are different tenses, so they are not going to be interchangeable or even both options in the same sentence. If your students know what you are trying to point out, I guess the slash is OK in that use.
Interesting discussion of “slashers…”
You give several names for slash-like glyphs. Please understand, that in typesetting, these names refer to specific and different glyphs!
In the “old days” of PageMaker or QuarkXpress, experienced typesetters learned that the “virgule” was superior to the normal “slash” for typesetting fractions (where a pre-made version wasn’t available) as the virgule had a greater slope, making the fraction look better … and better matched the 1/4, 1/2, etc. fractions in the same type face.
These days, InDesign has automated fraction-making (though this feature must be used carefully to avoid having unintended items “fractionalized”). I note that InDesign selects the virgule automatically in this situation (if the typeface being used fully complies with the standards).
Interestingly, Adobe (the publisher of InDesign) has designed the specifications such that the ‘normal” slash is called “solidus” and the related virgule is simply described as the “fraction slash” (as displayed in Adobe Minion Pro). Indeed Adobe’s Minion Pro typeface features 4 slash-like characters, with these Glyph IDs: 16 (normal slash), 61 (backslash), 99 (“fraction slash” — actually a virgule in earlier typeface sets); and 1396 (indistinguishable from #99, but given the name “division slash”). The “fraction slash” appears indistinguishable from the slash used in the pre-made fractions (1/4, 1/2, etc.) so that custom fractions will look right if set near the pre-made fractions. (In the era of PageMaker, this was a problem if the wrong slash character was used for custom-made fractions.)
I note that the “unicode” layout places the fraction slash among the pre-designed numerator/denominator numbers and the division slash is located with the other math symbols that are part of the full 1396 character set.
While I examined Adobe Minion Pro, other typefaces may have other slash-like characters as well. For example, Adobe Arno Pro has two slash characters (designated as “solidus”) a larger “normal” one and a smaller “small caps” version.
Thank you, Pete. And readers, if you want to know about the different names for slashes and their uses in typesetting, read Pete’s comment, because he knows.