Summary of
Punctuation Marks
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".
|
Mark |
Name |
Example |
|
. |
full stop/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rather out-of-date book.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 |
"Help!" she
cried. "I'm drowning!" |
|
/ |
oblique/slash |
Please
press your browser's Refresh/Reload button. |
|
" |
quotation marks |
"I love you,"
she said. |
|
' |
apostrophe |
This is
John's car. |
|
( ) |
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. |
|
{ } |
braces |
|
|
... |
ellipsis |
One happy
customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever
seen." |
|
