: Re: Grammar of, in dialogue, someone quickly negating a previous word? For example, let's say that someone says a word, but then immediately "corrects" it to a different word. Do you use a comma,

@LarsenBagley300

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Welcome to writing SE, Logrun.

Definitely not an n-dash. I'd suggest two m-dashes to set it off, but since you are in dialog, you can play around a lot.

"If--no, when--John arrives, he's got some explaining to do."

^^ That'd be my style. ^^ It sets off the correction on both ends.

But, you can also use other approaches. Here are a couple more options that seem right, at least to me... at least grammatically.

"If... You know what, there's no 'if' about it. When John arrives, he's got some explaining to do."

"If, or rather when, John arrives, he's got some explaining to do."

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