Punctuation

Punctuation
• Understanding the significance of punctuation is an essential
part of written English in order to convey exactly what you want
to denote. Whether you are working on your basic grammar or
preparing for competitive exams, learning the basics of
punctuation will surely help you strengthen your writing skills.
So, this blog brings you a comprehensive guide on what
punctuation marks are, their importance, types and uses along
with practice exercises.
What are Punctuation Mark
• Punctuation marks are a group of conventional marks or
characters that are used while writing the English language to
punctuate or separate parts of a sentence so that it becomes
more meaningful, and the reader understands the context in
which it was written. There are 14 commonly used punctuation
marks in the English language.
First introduction of Punctuation Mark

The first punctuation marks were produced by Aristophanes of Byzantium, in the Hellenistic period (i.e. after
Alexander the Great). He introduced punctuation and accent marks for Greek for the teaching of Homer. The comma
and full stop (period) are as we recognise them today. The colon was a raised dot. The interrogative (?) resembles the
semicolon (;). They continue into Modern Greek though the raised dot has become the semicolon and the colon is as
we would recognise it (:). Other more modern punctuation marks have also been added later.
These punctuation marks include

Sentence Endings; full stop,

question mark, exclamation point

Comma, colon, and semicolon

Dash and hyphen

Brackets, braces, and parentheses

Apostrophe, quotation marks, and

ellipsis
Importance of Punctuation in a Sentence

The use of
It helps to
punctuation is very It improves the
understand the
crucial in the readability and
context in which
English language logic of the
something was said
because of the context.
or written.
following reasons:
It helps to break
the sentence or When used
Correct
indicate pauses incorrectly, it can
punctuation helps
which is important change the
to clarify the tone
to understand the meaning of the
of the sentence.
meaning of the entire sentence.
sentence.
Different Type of Punctuations and their
Usage
• There are 14 types of punctuation marks that can be used while
writing in English. These are:
Full Stop/Period

• A full stop or a period is used at the end of a declarative or

imperative sentence like after a statement or command. It
denotes the end of a sentence. A period is also used for
abbreviations such as titles, names, time, etc.
Examples
• I will meet you at home.
• Submit this report by Tuesday.
• Abbreviations like a.m., p.m., Mr Scott M. Clarke, Mrs., etc.
Question Mark

• A question mark is a punctuation used at the end of an

interrogative sentence/at the end of a question. It denotes the
end of the sentence. Commonly, it is used with sentences that
begin with what, why, where, when, who and how.
Examples
• What do we have to do for the assignment?
• Is that your sandwich?
• What time is it?
Exclamation Point

• An exclamation point is used to denote the end of an

exclamatory sentence like a sentence that expresses an intense
emotion or feeling. It is also used to emphasize a sentence.
Examples
• Oh my god! That is some great news!
• I’m so excited about your party!
Comma

• Commas are used to break up different parts of a sentence.

They allow someone to make sense of what they are reading.
Commas occur where ideas are grouped, to make it easier to
understand these ideas. It may be helpful to think of commas as
places where a reader might draw breath. The comma forms a
natural place in a sentence where the reader can pause, to
make sense of an idea. As a comma signifies a pause, it follows
natural speech pattern. Here are some of the ways it can be
used.
Comma
• A comma is a punctuation used to indicate a separation of
ideas or insert a pause in a sentence. It has a variety of
purposes like-
• It is used to separate three or more things in a list or series.
• It is used to set off names used in direct address.
• It can be used to show a pause after an introductory word.
• It is used to separate two complete sentences.
Comma
• To separate words in a list:
• He lost his house, his heritage, his hair, and his handkerchief.
• To separate parts of a sentence:
• Firstly, I would like to consider the merits of supplementing the diet with zinc extract.
Secondly, vitamin C can be introduced to combat infection.
• Here the comma separates the first word from the body of the sentence, to indicate that
this idea is only the first.
• To separate two parts of a linked idea:
• After the French Revolution had taken place, many other European countries were
concerned about civil unrest.
Many scientists believe in evolution, although some are trying to disprove Darwin's
Theory of Evolution.
• To separate a final phrase, which is an afterthought:
• Few people enjoy arduous and demanding exams, especially on Saturdays.
I would like to run the London Marathon, if I were fit.
Examples

• She ordered a burger, fries and coke at the restaurant.

• Jan, it is good to see you.
• However, it was a lie.
• Texas, USA is a great city to live in.
Colon

• A colon can be used in a sentence when introducing something

like a quote, an example, a series, or an explanation. It is also
used between individual clauses when the second one provides
an explanation for the first. Lastly, it can be used for emphasis.
Colon
• When a colon is used in a sentence, the parts it separates do not need to be complete sentences in
their own right. Colons are used in the following ways:
• To introduce a list:
• The results of the indoor team games were as follows: Wessex came first, Bridges and Wantage
were joint second, and Sibly came last.
• To link two sentences thematically:
• Psychological studies into domestic violence are usually centred on an idea of the nuclear family:
Henry Davis decided that he should undertake a more radical approach to research in this area.
• Here the two sentences could exist separately, but by connecting them with a colon the reader is
led from one idea to the next.
• To draw out a conclusion:
• Language acquisition is a difficult but immensely rewarding task: without it, there is little hope for
global communication.
• Here, what is said in the first sentence is contextualised by what is said in the second sentence.
Colon
Examples
• She took four classes last semester: history, biology, arts, and
economics.
• I was late for the party: there was traffic.
• I only like one colour: red.
Semicolon

• A semicolon is used to connect two separate sentences that

are interrelated. These independent sentences could also be
connected through conjunctions like but, and, therefore, etc. It is
stronger than a comma but not as strong as a full stop
Examples
• Joan likes eggs; Jennifer does not.
• The cat slept through the storm; the dog cowered under the
bed.
Dash

• Dashes are not commonly used but are used to set off an idea within
a sentence. There are two types of dashes ‘en dash’ and ‘em dash’.
An en dash(–) is twice the size of a hyphen and is used to indicate a
range, connection or differentiation. An em dash(—) is longer and is
used to put emphasis or enhance readability. It can be used in place
of a comma, semicolon or parenthesis.
• Examples:
• The building was in construction from 1970 – 1980.
• The approximate cost is Rs. 900 – Rs.1500.
• Her answer was— No!
Hyphen

• A hyphen is used to join two or more words to form a

compound word.
Examples
• Day-to-day
• Step-mother
• Part-time
Brackets

• Brackets are used to insert explanations, corrections,

clarifications, or comments into quoted material or otherwise. It
is used for technical explanations or to clarify meaning.
Examples
• Jim said, “ it [sunset] was really pretty.”
• “Did you see that [cat]?”
Braces

• Braces are used to mark pauses and represent choices. They

are often and extensively used in Mathematics for numerical
sets of numbers and formulas.
• Examples:
• Odd numbers {1, 3, 5, 7, 9 …}
• 2{1+[23-3]}=x
Parenthesis

• Parenthesis is used to denote extra additional information or

comments. They can be replaced by commas without changing
the meaning in most cases.
Examples
• He gave me a nice bonus ($500).
• He finally answered (after taking five minutes to think) that he
did not understand the question.
Apostrophe

• An apostrophe is used in place of letters omitted from a word or

compound word while writing. They are used to form
possessive nouns. They are also used to form plurals of letters,
numbers and symbols.
• Examples:
• Don’t, can’t, didn’t, I’m
• Michael’s dog ran away.
• Erin’s sweatshirt was tan coloured.
• Kevin got straight A’s in his exams.
The apostrophe has two functions:

1.To show that letters are missing. This is known as contraction.

2.To indicate ownership. This is known as possession.
• Contractions
• When letters are missing in a word, and the word becomes shorter,
the apostrophe is used to show where the missing letters belonged.
• For example:
• I am becomes I'm
• You will becomes you'll
• They would becomes they'd
• Contractions are used in informal writing. Essays and reports should
not contain informal writing.
Possession
• Apostrophes are also used to show that something belongs to something else.
For example
• The girl's hat - means that the hat is owned by the girl.
• The girl's hats - means that the girl owns more than one hat.
• The girls' hat - means that the girls all share ownership of one hat.
• The girls' hats - means that the girls own several hats (or one each).
• As you can see, the apostrophe usually comes before the 's' if the subject is single ('the
girl'), and after the 's' if it is plural ('the girls'). However it may be different if the word for a
single subject ends with 's' like princess, Venus or Socrates. One useful way to deal with
this is to see if the 's' is pronounced.
For example
• Venus's arms or the princess's coronet
• In both of these examples the 's' is pronounced, so there is an additional 's' with the
apostrophe before.
• Socrates' wife
• In this example the 's' is not pronounced, so there is no additional 's' and the apostrophe
goes after the final 's' in Socrates.
Its/it's
• The cat licked its paws.
• There is no need for an apostrophe, because 'its' is a pronoun in its own right
which stands in for 'the cat's' and indicates ownership.
• It's an amazing idea.
• A missing letter has been replaced by the apostrophe, so it really means 'it is':
Whose/who's
• Whose shoes are they?
• Here whose is a special kind of pronoun (like its) which indicates ownership
already, so there is no apostrophe.
• Who's coming to dinner?
• A missing letter has been replaced by the apostrophe, so it really means, 'who is'.
Dates

• The 1960s were a period of radical changes in morality.

• In the '60s, public morality underwent radical changes.
• 1960s' morality was quite different to that which had gone before.
• - In the first sentence, '1960s' is a plural referring to all the years between
1960 and 1969, so there is no apostrophe.
• - In the second sentence there is a contraction with '19' missed off. The
apostrophe replaces the missing numbers.
• - In the third sentence, what is being referred to is the morality of
the 1960s, so the apostrophe indicates possession.
• It is worth remembering that words may end with 's' because they are
plurals, and not because they indicate ownership or contraction. Look at
what the word is doing and apply an apostrophe only if appropriate.
Quotation Marks

• There are two types of quotation marks: double quotation

marks and single quotation marks. Double quotation marks are
used before direct quotations, direct speech, dialogues,
something someone said or is saying. Single quotation marks
are used to indicate quotations inside of other quotations or
otherwise. It is also used for
Examples
• Stanley said, “ I don’t like this.”
• The title of the book is ‘Harry Potter and Prisoner of Azkaban.’
• “Why did you do this?” Said Andy angrily.
Ellipsis

• Ellipsis is used to represent an omission of words or letters in a

sentence. It used to omit unnecessary words from sentences or
quotes.
• Examples:
• Holly flustered, “ do you know where um… never mind.”
• Call me Ryan… they mistakenly called me Ron.”
Thank You