7/30/2019 Rules in using Punctuation Marks
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Punctuation Marks
Punctuation marks are important in both written and spoken
English. In writtenEnglish, the correct usage of these symbols
helps to express the intendedmeaning of the sentence.
a. Full Stop/Period
The full stop or the period (.) is the strongest punctuation in
the Englishlanguage. It indicates, when used at the end of a
sentence, a strong pause.Look at the following examples.
1. Lets go there.2. I like this laptop.
3. Read this book.4. I will go home.This is the most common and
obvious use of the full stop but it is also used insome other
situations.
1. After abbreviations like etc., a.m., p.m.2. After words like
Goodbye. All right. Hi.
o Goodbye. I will see you soon.o Hi Amit. How are you?o All
right. Lets finish this by Thursday.
3. After titles like Mr., Mrs., Dr. etc.4. After decimal points
like:
o The sales fell by 6.3% this week.o The share market index rose
by 5.1% this quarter.
An ellipsis (...) is often used to indicate a pause, an
unfinished sentence orwhen trailing off into silence. It is also a
handy tool when youre quoting andwant to omit certain words.
1. He drank and drank...and then drank some more.2. At the
stroke ofthe midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will
awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but
rarely inhistory, ...
b. Question Mark
The question mark (?) is an important part of the English
language and wasdeveloped sometime around the 18th Century. Like
the full stop (.), thispunctuation mark is used mainly at the end
of an interrogative sentence.
The most obvious and common use of the question mark is to end
adirect question. Look at the following sentences.
1. Where are you going?2. What is this?
A. To indicate uncertainty.
1. He lived till 1990(?) and was buried near his house.2.
Gandhiji, 2nd October 1869(?) 1948, was a great Indian leader.
B. In a series of questions.1. What? He isnt coming? When did
you speak to him?
C. To end a tag question (a statement followed by a question).1.
His phone was stolen, wasnt it?
NOTE: Many times, people use questions marks even when theyre
notrequired. One such situation would be indirect questions; these
do not requira question mark.
1. Rohit asked Nidhi to marry him.2. The Principal asked him his
name.
c. Exclamation Mark
The exclamation mark is a punctuation used to express strong
feelings oremotions. It is commonly used after interjections or
exclamations.
The exclamation mark should be mainly used to demonstrate shock,
surpriseanger or a raised voice.
Hurray!Help!Go away! I dont want to talk to you!Shut Up!
d. Comma
A comma is a punctuation used to denote a pause in the sentence.
A commaused to structure a sentence and helps the reader understand
the meaning othe sentence.
1. To separate a series of words (nouns, adjectives, verbs or
adverbs) ia sentence.Ramesh, Shravan, Dilip and Radha went for the
meeting.Sheetal is an intelligent, loyal and hardworking
employee.2. To separate a series of phrases in a sentence.
Amit completed his homework, packed his bags, polished his shoes
and wento sleep.3. To separate the parenthetical elements (a part
of a sentence that canbe removed without changing the meaning of
the sentence).M.S. Dhoni, Indias cricket captain, hit a six to win
the match.Vishnu, the headboy of the school, has been absent for
the last three days.4. To separate the quoted parts from the rest
of the sentence.The great leadertold the crowd, I will fast till
death until our demands are mePlease go back to your houses, said
the policeman to the crowd.
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e. Colon and Semi Colon
The colon ( : ) is a punctuation mark consisting of two dots one
over the otherwhereas the semi colon ( ; ) consists of a dot above
a comma.
In the majority of the cases, the colon is used to introduce a
list of things whilea semi colon is used to separate sentences
where the conjunction has beenleft out.
COLON SEMI COLON
I have packed my cricket kit withthe equipment I need:
bats,gloves and pads.
Sumit likes to play cricket; Amitlikes to play soccer.
A man needs three things tosurvive: air, water and food.
I drank lemonade; Manish dranktea.
The following sentence will illustrate the use of both these
punctuation marks -I talked to four men: Amit, who is from Delhi;
Manoj, who is from Lucknow;Vinod, who is from Mumbai; and Mohan,
who is from Patna.
f. Apostrophe
The apostrophe has two distinct uses in English1. Used to show
possession:
o Bat owned by RaviRavis bato Doll owned by SitaSitas doll
2. Used to show contractions of words:o It is so hot todayIts so
hot todayo I have not done my homeworkI havent done
my homework
CAPITALIZATION:1) Capitalize the pronoun I.Example: Jennifer and
I went to the movies yesterday.2) Capitalize the first letter of
the first word of each sentence.Example: Learning to capitalize
correctly will improve your writing.3) Capitalize the first letter
of names of people, organizations, and
places.Example: Juan went on a trip to Tokyo, Japan for his
company, General Motors
Corporation.4) Capitalize the first letter of adjectives that
are made from the
names of people and places.Example: I like Mexican food.5)
Capitalize initialsExample: My brother's favorite author is H.G.
Wells.6) Capitalize the first letter of directions only when they
are used
to designate actual places, not when they point in a
direction.Example: When we visited the Southwest, we actually had
to drive north.7) Capitalize the first letter of the names of
months and
the days of the week.Example: My birthday will be on a Friday
next June.8) Capitalize the official title of a person (including
abbreviations),
but only when you use it with the person's name.Example: Did
Clarissa recommend Dr. Montoya to you?
9) Capitalize words used as names or parts of names.Example: Did
Uncle George call my mom to tell her our grandmother is with
Dad?
10) Capitalize the first letter of important words in a title of
abook, magazine, story, essay, etc.
Example: I enjoyed Mark's essay, "The Truth About Being a Good
Student."11) Capitalize historical events and documents.Example:
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the Civil War.12)
Capitalize the name of languages, races, nationalities, and
religions.Example: I learned in Spanish class that several
Hispanics are Catholic.13) Capitalize acronyms. (An acronym is a
word formed by the
first, or first few, letters of words in a long name of
anorganization.)
Example: CARE is the Cooperative for American Relief
Everywhere.14) Capitalize initialisms. (An initialism is similar to
acronym, but
a word is not formed from the letters.)Example: The Central
Intelligence Agency is simply known as the CIA.
