Punctuation
Punctuation rules
Punctuation marks are symbols which
Punctuation marks are also used to avoid ambiguity. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" has a different meaning from "woman: without her, man is nothing"
- organize the structure of written language,
- and indicate intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.
This is a summary of punctuation rules.
Read the punctuation rules and study the examples given.
End punctuation marks:
1. Full stop , or period (.)
2. Question marks (?)
- Used a full stop at the end of a sentence:
She stood up and went away. She was furious.- Used for abbreviations:
Co. (Company)
M.P. (Member of Parliament)
3. Exclamation marks (!)
- Question marks are used at the end of direct questions:
Where do you live?
Are you crazy?
Did you do the homework?- Use a question mark at the end of tag questions:
You will help me, won't you?
He likes soccer, doesn't he?
- Used to indicate strong emotions:
She's so beautiful!
What a nice girl!
How interesting!- Used after interjections:
Oh! It's awful.
Hi! What's up?Commas (,)
- Commas are used between items in a series or list. The last two items of the series usually do not need a comma between them. They are separated by "and".
I like spaghetti, fish, pizza and couscous.- Commas are also used between adjectives or adverbs:
I'd like to have a big, black, German car.
She speaks slowly, quietly and eloquently.- After the street address and city in an address:
34 Hassan II Street, Rabat, Morocco.- Before or after direct speech:
He said,"I hate being treated like that."
"I'm sorry", she replied.- Before a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
He woke up late, so he had to drive to work.Semicolons (;)
- Semicolons are used instead of a full stop or period to separate independent sentences:
They woke up early; then they went jogging.- Use a semicolon to separate items in a series when those items contain punctuation such as a comma:
They visited the Eiffel Tower, Paris; Big Ben, London; and the statue of liberty, New YorkColons (:)
- Use a colon to introduce a list:
He visited three cities last summer holiday: Madrid, Roma and Athens.- To introduce an idea or an explanation:
He had one idea in mind: to see her as soon as possible.- To introduce direct speech or a quotation:
The secretary whispered in his ear: "Your wife is on the phone. "
Dashes (--)
- To introduce parenthetical information:
I put on a blue jacket --the one my mother bought me-- and blue jeans.- To show an afterthought:
I explained to him my point of view-- at least I tried!
Apostrophes (')
- Use an apostrophe to indicate a missing letter or letters in a contraction.
I'm fed up with his stories- Use an apostrophe plus the letter "s" to show possession.
My brother's girlfriend is such a sweet girl.Quotation marks ("")
- Quotation marks are used to quote speech, sentences or words.
She said, "I love you."
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