PUNCTUATION IN ENGLISH - by Viv Quarry
(www.vivquarry.com)
Punctuation exists order writing into logical blocks, and to enable a person to read out loud a written text with the appropriate stress, intonation and pauses.
1. Here are the names of the different punctuation marks in English.
. = Full stop (period) , = Comma ' = Apostrophe - = Hyphen
! = Exclamation mark ? = Question mark ; = Semi-colon : = Colon
‘ ’ = Single quotation marks (single quotes) " " = Double quotation marks (double quotes)
(These are sometimes called Inverted commas)
/ = (Forward) Slash \ = Back-slash
— = Dash ( ) = (in) Brackets (in parentheses)
{ } = Curly brackets [ ] = Square brackets
'and', 'but' and 'so' normally connect clauses within a sentence, so they are preceded with a comma and not a full stop. However, Some linking words normally show contrast or cause and effect between sentences. Therefore, these are preceded by a full stop and followed by a comma.
Apostrophes are used to show contractions and possession.
Hyphens are sometimes used after prefixes and between some compound nouns
Semi-colons are often used instead of full stops where sentences are grammatically independent but the meaning is closely connected.
eg. Some people work best in the mornings; others do better in the evenings.
They can also be used to separate items (especially of phrases) in a list.
Colons can be used before explanations, lists, to introduce quotations and in titles to separate a main heading from a sub-division.
eg. Punctuation: colon
Single quotation marks are often used when we talk about a word, or when we use it in an unusual way.
eg. A textbook can be a ‘wall’ between a teacher and his class.
Double (or single) quotation marks can be used to quote speech.
eg. "Hello," she said.
For a quotation within a quotation, we use the kind of marks that we are not using for the main quotation.
eg. "Good heavens," thought Jane. "What shall I do if he says 'Hello' to me?"
A dash is often used in informal writing to add afterthoughts or instead of colons and semi-colons.
eg. There are three things I can never remember — names, faces, and I've forgotten the other!
2. Numerical punctuation.
There are differences in numerical punctuation conventions between different countries.
The decimal point is used for decimals.
13.0492 = Thirteen point zero, four, nine, two.
0.61 = Nought point six, one (UK), Zero point six, one (USA).
Whole numbers above one thousand are separated by a COMMA.
23,572 = Twenty-three thousand, five hundred and seventy two.
A full stop (or sometimes a colon) is usually used to show the time.
21.30 = Half past nine at night.
3. Capital letters.
REMEMBER that in Portuguese, it is possible to write a capital 'A' as a big lower case 'a'. This is not possible in English. Capital letters must be written in the same way as they appear when typed and be wholly above the line on the page e.g.:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The use capital letters in words varies between different languages.
In English the following group of words must start with a CAPITAL LETTER.
Days of the week. eg. Monday, Tuesday etc.
Months eg. September, July etc. (Note: seasons do not usually have a capital).
July/99 is incorrect in English. It should be 'July '99'
Planets eg. Jupiter, Mars etc. (Note: no capitals for: the earth, the sun or the moon).
Nationality words eg. I live in Brazil, I'm Brazilian and I speak Portuguese.
Professional titles eg. There's Colonel Sanders: he's just been promoted to general.
Points of the compass only have a capital letter when they are used in place names.
eg. If you go south from Italy, you will arrive in North Africa.
4. The Internet
In an e-mail address, @ is said as the preposition 'at' in English, . is said as 'dot'
eg. Written = vivqrio@domain.com.br Spoken = "v-i-v-q-r-i-o-at-d-o-m-a-i-n-dot-com-dot-br"