Punctuation

Punctuation is the use of different marks to show how a sentence is constructed. It consists of:

• comma
• full stop (or period)
• apostrophe
• quotation mark
• question mark
• exclamation mark
• bracket
• dash
• hyphen
• ellipsis
• colon
• semicolon

Punctuation marks guide our reading, emphasising where we should pause, stop, show excitement or wonder, and so on.

Each of them indicates a different thing, and some may have multiple meanings depending on the context.

Comma

For a full discussion on this subject, see Commas

When we have a list of adjectives and each adjective describes the same noun, we use commas to separate the adjectives. Both big and bad are equally important in this example:

When an adjective describes another adjective, we do not use commas. In this example, we are talking about the big bad wolf as oppose to the small bad wolf:

Note that we do not use a comma between the last adjective and the noun.

When the adjectives follow the noun or verb (i.e. the adjectives are predicative) we separate the adjectives with commas and use and to separate the final two:

Full Stop (or Period)

The full stop (or period in American English) is the most common way to end a statement. The other end punctuation marks are the question mark and the exclamation mark.

Although full stops are used with affirmative or negative statements they can also be found with imperative sentences when there is no sense of urgency or excitement to be conveyed.

Capital Letter

Capital letters are not really an aspect of punctuation but because they are often connected to the use of a period, which is a punctution aspect, there is a tendency to address them under Punctuation.

For more on this see Capital Letters

Apostrophe

The apostrophe is used mainly in two ways:

1. In contracted forms to show that some letters have been left out.

2. With the possessive case to show possession.

For more on this see Apostrophe.

Question Mark

When we make a question, we use a question mark to end our direct question.

A question mark cannot be used to end an indirect question. Indirect questions are simply statements, and therefore end with a full stop.

Exclamation Mark

When we make an exclamation, or when we need to convey a sense of urgency or a strong emotion, we use an exclamation mark.

Semicolon

The semicolon is a punctuation mark that indicates a long pause. It is used mainly to link independent clauses that are closely related in meaning.

For more on this see Semicolon.

See Also

Punctuating Direct Speech