Punctuation

punctuation marks

Punctuation is the system of symbols (. , ! - : etc) that we use to separate sentences and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Each symbol is called a "punctuation mark".

The Value of Punctuation
An English teacher wrote these words on the board:

woman without her man is nothing

The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly. The men wrote the top line. The women wrote the bottom line.
The value of punctuation

Summary of Punctuation Marks

Punctuation Mark Name Example
full stop or period full stop or period I like English.
commacomma I speak English, French and Thai.
semi-colonsemi-colon I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis.
coloncolon You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract.
hyphenhyphen This is a rather out-of-date book.
dashdash In each town—London, Paris and Rome—we stayed in youth hostels.
question markquestion mark Where is Shangri-La?
exclamation markexclamation mark "Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!"
slash or forward slashslash, forward slash or oblique Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button.
backslashbackslashC:\Users\Files\jse.doc
double quotation marks double quotation marks

"I love you," she said.

single quotation markssingle quotation marks'I love you,' she said.
apostropheapostrophe This is John's car.
underlineunderlineHave you read War and Peace?
underscoreunderscorebin_lad@cia.gov
round bracketsround brackets I went to Bagkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks.
square bracketssquare brackets The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released.
bracescurly brackets or braces { b := a + 1
RESULTIS b }
ellipsisellipsis One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen."
 
Although there are general rules for English punctuation, there are differences of styles between, for example, British and American English, some publishers and some writers.