Punctuation and its Uses

The following are the items that make the sentence linked and give a better meaning in a simple or a few words

This sunbject talks about the Punctuation

1-
Full stop (.), question mark and exclamation mark (!) : A sentence ends with one of these puctuation marks

Full stop: It’s cold today. The office was closed. Please be careful

Question mark: Who’s that? Did you see the show? Could you wait, please
?

Exclamation mark: Oh,no! I don’t believe it! and so on

In the United States a full stop is called a ‘period’

2-
Semi-colon ( : We can use a semi-colon between two separate statements which are linked in meaning

Melanie is a very kind person; she visits David in hospital every day

We could also use a full stop here

3-
Colon ( : We can use a colon before an explanation or before a list

Vicky felt nervous; she hated the dark
There wasn’t much in in the fridge; a couple of sausage , some butter, half a bottle of milk

4-
Dash (ــ) :

A dash is rather informal. It’s sometimes used instead of a colon or a semi-colon

I’m having a great time – there’s lots to do here
Vicky felt nervous – she hated the dark

5-
Comma ( , ) : We often use a comma when we link two statements with and,but or or

Daniel was tired, and his feet were hurting
It’s a really good camera, but I can’t afford it

Note the two subjects in each sentence: Daniel ….his feet, and it …. When there’s only one subject, we don’t use a comma

Daniel sat down and took his shoes off

We can also use a comma when when a sentence has a linking word like when or although

When the office is busy, Sarah has to work late

Sometimes a comma can separate off an adverb or a phrase

Sarah, unfortunately, has to work late
On busy days, Sarah has to work late

Here the commas separate off on busy days and unfortunately

The roles about commas are not very exact. In general, commas are more likely around long phrases. With a short phrase there’s often no comma

On busy days Sarah has to work late
Sometimes she has to work late

It’s less usual to separate off something at the end of the sentence

Sarah has to work late when the office is busy
She stayed late to get the work gone

We don’t usually put a comma before to expressing purpose

We also use commas in a list of moren than two. The last two are linked by and, often without a comma

I went out with Rachel, Vicky, Emma and Matthew

6-
Quotation marks ( ‘ ’ ) :We put direct speech in qutation marks

Lara said, ‘ You haven’t put those shelves up yet.’ An other sentence ‘I haven’t had time,’ Replied Trevor

We normally use a comma to separate the direct speech from the rest of the sentence
The Comma comes before the quotation mark. Quotation marks are also called ‘quotes’ or ‘inverted commas’. Note that

Double quotation marks are sometimes used

“ you haven’t put those shelves up yet” Laura said

We can put quotation marks around titles

Do you watch that American comedy series called ‘Roseanne’
?

We often use quotation marks when we mention a word or phrase

What does ‘punctuation’ mean? ‘hip hop’ is also another title for the Rap music

7-
Hyphen (-) :We sometimes use hyphens in these structures

Compound noun: eating ice-cream
Compound expressions before a noun: an oven-ready meal
Noun formed from a phrasal verb: ready for take-off
Noun + ing-form: interested in rock-climbing
Before the last word of a compound number : a hundred and twenty –six people
After some prefixes: anti-aircraft guns
Letter + noun: sending an e-mail

The rules about hyphens are not very exact. For example you may see a compound noun written as phonecard, phone-card or phone card. Hyphens are not frequent in British English, and they are used even less in American English. If you’re unsure, it’s usually safer to write two separate words

8-
Apostrophe ( ’ ) : Look at these examples

Today we’re going for a drive in the country
Everyone is looking at Nick’s car

We use an apostrophe (’ ) in short forms, when there is a missing letter, e.g. we’re (= we are) an so on

We also use an apostrophe with s to form the possessive of a noun, e.g. Nick’s car

9-
Capital letters

There’re two capital letters (big letters) in this sentence

The boss said I could leave early

We use a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and for the word I

We also use a capital letter to begin the names of people, places, companies, etc

Mark and Sarah
New Orleans
the High Street
Somerset House
General Motors

This include the names of books, films, magazines, etc All the important words start with a capital letter

The Spy Who Loved Me
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Newsweek

We also use a capital letter for days of the week, months of the year, holidays and festivals, historical times, nationalities and most abbreviations

Monday
August
Easter
the New Year
the Industrial Revolution
some Italian shoes
the UN (= the United Nations) and so on