PUNCTUATION MARKS

Punctuation marks on a page are similar to signs on a road. 
They guide you and direct you.

1.  A period ( . ) ends a declarative or imperative sentence.

            Listen to me. 

            I live in Kedah.   

            Please come here.   

            Eat your vegetables.

            Don’t drink and drive. 

            They don’t live in Penang.

2.  A question mark ( ? ) ends an interrogative sentence.

            Do you live in Pasadena?  

            Don’t you like chocolate ice cream?

3.  An exclamation mark  ( ! ) ends an exclamatory sentence

     (a sentence that contains a lot of emotion).

            Help!   Stop!   Don’t call me again!

4.  A  comma  ( , ) separates items in a list.

            I like coffee, soda, milk, and tea.     

           Sara, Maria, Robert and Steven will eat lunch. 

 

5.  A semicolon ( ; ) separates equal parts of a sentence.

            Mary is at home; Bob is at school.

            Give me a hamburger, with onions and lettuce; a coke, with a straw;

            and fries, with ketchup.

6.  A   colon ( : ) usually precedes a list.

            Bring these things with  you: a book, a pencil, and a dictionary.

7.  A dash ( – ) usually indicates a break in thought.

            I’ll have a hot dog with mustard – no, make that ketchup.

8.  A hyphen ( - ) separates syllables to make a word easier to read.

            co-ordinate        re-elect     pray-er

     *A hyphen also separates syllables when  it’s necessary  to continue 

       a word on the following  line.*

 

9.  Parentheses ( )  or a pair of dashes contain extra information.

            John (my brother) is coming to the party.

            John – my brother – is coming to the party.

10.  An ellipsis (...) shows that information is missing or deleted.

            “To be or not...the question.”  

       (“To be or not to be. That is the question.”)

11.  Quotation marks (“  ”) enclose the exact words of a person.

            Maria said, “Where are the keys?”

12.  An apostrophe ( ’ ) is a substitute for a letter or letters (in a contraction).

            isn’t = is not    can’t = cannot    don’t = do not    I’ll = I will    I’m = I am  

            He’s sick. = He is sick.

            Bob’s rich. = Bob is rich.    

            What’s new? = What is new? 

           They’ve worked. = They have worked.

            ’99 = 1999  

         * An apostrophe also shows possession.*

            This is Sara’s book.  (Don’t say:  This is the book of Sara.)    

            Where is the dog’s dish?

14.  Begin all sentences with a capital letter (i.e., capitalize the first word in all sentences)

        and end all sentences with a punctuation mark.  = Capitalize the first word in

        a sentence and finish the sentence with a punctuation mark.