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.Punctuation Blues - a fun song about punctuation |  |
Summary of Punctuation Marks
Click on the link for each punctuation mark to find out more.| Punctuation Mark | Name | Example |
|---|---|---|
 | 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 | hyphen | This is a rather out-of-date book.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 town—London, Paris and Rome—we stayed in youth hostels. |
 | question mark | Where is Shangri-La? |
 | exclamation mark exclamation point (AmE) | "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 Bangkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks. |
 | square brackets | The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released. |
 | ellipsis mark | One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen." |