Punctuation Rules
Punctuation marks
are symbols which organize the structure of written language, and indicate
intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud. 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.”
Full stop (.)
Use a full stop at the end of a
sentence:
She stood up and went away.
She was furious.
Use for abbreviations:
Co. (Company)
M.P. (Member of Parliament)
Question 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?
Exclamation marks (!)
Use to indicate strong emotions:
She’s so beautiful!
What a nice girl!
How interesting!
Use 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 red, white, green and brown
colours.
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 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.
Dashes (-)
To introduce parenthetical
information:
I put on a blue jacket – the one my
mother bought me.
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 apostrophes plus the letter
“s” to show possession:
Ashok’s father is a rich man.
Quotation marks (“ ”)
Quotation marks are used to quote
speech, sentences, or words:
He said, “I work hard.”
Colons (:)
Use a colon to introduce a list:
He visited four cities last year:
London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Sydney.
To introduce an idea or an
explanation:
He had one idea in mind: to see him
as soon as possible.
To introduce direct speech or a
quotation:
The secretary whispered in his ear:
“your father is on the phone.”
Semicolon (;)
Semicolons are used instead of a
full stop or period to separate independent sentences:
They woke up early; then they went
for 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 York.