English Punctuation.

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.


Are there any differences of meaning depending on the punctuation? Sure!

Summary of Punctuation Marks

full stop or period I like English.

comma I speak English, French and Thai.

semi-colon I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis.

colon You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract.

hyphen This is a rather out-of-date book.

dash In each townóLondon, Paris and Romeówe stayed in youth hostels.

question mark Where is Shangri-La?

exclamation mark "Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!"

slash, forward slash or oblique Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button.

backslash C:\Users\Files\jse.doc

double quotation marks "I love you," she said.

single quotation marks 'I love you,' she said.

apostrophe This is John's car.

underline Have you read War and Peace?

underscore bin_lad@cia.gov

round brackets I went to Bagkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks.

square brackets The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released.

curly brackets or braces { b := a + 1RESULTIS b }

ellipsis 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.