G5: Punctuation
Cut out each card following the thick, black line. Then, fold the card along the dotted
line to create a double-sided flashcard. You may wish to glue the two halves together or
laminate the cards for longevity.
G5.1 G5.1
Capital letters are used at the
beginning of a sentence. They are used
to begin proper nouns, for days of the
Capital Letters
week and for the personal pronoun ‘I’,
e.g.
I have a dog called Buddy.
We like to walk around Manchester
each Tuesday.
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G5.2 G5.2
A full stop should be used to mark the
end of a statement sentence, e.g.
Full Stops
Your dog is noisy.
They can also be used to mark the
end of a command sentence, e.g.
Tell your dog to be quiet.
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G5.3 G5.3
A question mark should be used to
mark the end of a question sentence,
e.g.
Question Marks Is that dog barking?
They can also be used after a
question tag, e.g.
That dog is barking, isn’t it?
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G5.4 G5.4
An exclamation mark should be used
at the end of an exclamation sentence,
e.g.
What a noisy dog that is!
Exclamation Marks They can also be used to show
strong emotion, excitement or for
emphasis, e.g.
Don’t do that!
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G5.5 G5.5
Commas can be used to separate each
item in a list, with the exception of
the final two items which are usually
Commas in Lists separated by the conjunction ‘and’ or
the conjunction ‘or’, e.g.
My dogs are called Buddy, Lucky,
Betty and Wendy.
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G5.6a G5.6a
Commas can be added to a sentence
to make the intended meaning clear.
The addition of one or more commas
Commas to can allow the reader to interpret the
sentence in a different way, e.g.
Clarify Meaning Inside the dog was barking.
Inside, the dog was barking.
Hurry up and eat Mum.
Hurry up and eat, Mum.
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G5.6b G5.6b
A fronted adverbial is an adverb or
an adverbial phrase which is at the
beginning of a sentence and has
Commas after been used to describe the action that
follows. A comma is used to separate
Fronted Adverbials the fronted adverbial from the subject
of the sentence.
Usually, I walk my dog at 5 p.m.
Next Thursday, she will not be walked.
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G5.7 G5.7
Single or double inverted commas,
also sometimes called speech marks,
are used to show where the speaker’s
words begin and end when writing
Inverted Commas direct speech, e.g.
“Stop that!” yelled Chris.
Single inverted commas may be used
to give a quotation or to surround the
title of a book when writing about it.
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G5.8 An apostrophe can usually be G5.8
used to show singular possession by
being placed before the letter s or to
show plural possession by being placed
after the s, e.g.
Apostrophes My dog’s toys.
My dogs’ toys.
An apostrophe can be used to show
where letters have been removed in a
contracted form, e.g.
I’ll be home late – it’s been a busy day.
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G5.9 G5.9
Parenthesis is a word or phase that
can be added into a sentence to give
Punctuation for
extra information.
The information is contained within a
Parenthesis
pair of brackets, a pair of dashes or a
pair of commas, e.g.
My dog (an old greyhound) loves to
sleep.
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G5.10 G5.10
A colon can be used to separate
clauses where the second clause
explains or follows on from the first,
e.g.
Colons I love my dogs: they are fun and cute.
A colon can also be used to introduce
a list, e.g.
The price includes the following: food,
travel, accommodation and taxes.
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G5.11 G5.11
A semi-colon can be used instead of
a full stop between two main clauses
which are closely linked in content, e.g.
Semi-Colons
My dogs bark often; the noise can be
annoying.
Semi-colons can also be used to
separate items in a list when the listed
points already contain commas.
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G5.12 G5.12
A single dash can be used to show a
break in a sentence where a
semi-colon or a colon could also
have been used, e.g.
Single Dashes I love my dogs – they are fun and
cute.
My dogs bark often – the noise can be
annoying.
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G5.13 G5.13
A hyphen can be used to join two or
more words to create compound words
or compound adjectives, e.g.
Hyphens I wore an ill-fitting hand-me-down.
A hyphen can also be used to join
some prefixes to some root words, e.g.
I pre-ordered her new book.
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G5.14 G5.14
Bullet points are an organisational
device which can be used to clearly
present separate pieces of information
and to make a list easier to read, e.g.
Bullet Points When we got there, we:
• sat down;
• ordered some lunch;
• had a long conversation.
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