Hard Return is when 'You' press the enter to move to the next line. Ex: After this line ends, I press the Enter to go to the next line. Soft return is when the software by itself moves to next after the current line ends. Ex: qwertyuiop asdfghjkl; zxcvbnm,, qweryuiop This line is about to end. After the line ends, the program automatically moves to the next line without extending the line.