Let's Learn about Punctuation

Course Description

CORDOVA INT’L SCHOOL & COLLEGE

IGCSE Classes

SUBJECT: ENGLIHS LANGUAGE

A. The Full Stop represents the greatest pause and separation. It is used to mark the end of a declarative or an imperative sentence; as,

Dear, patient, gentle, noble Nell was dead.

B. The Full stop can be used in abbreviations, but they are often omitted in modern style.

M.A. or MA

M.P. or MP

U.N.O. or UNO

C. The Comma represents the shortest pause, and is used :-

(1) To separate a series of words in the same construction; as,

England, France and Italy formed an alliance.

He lost lands, money, reputation and friends.

It was a long, dull and wearisome journey.

He wrote his exercise neatly, quickly and correctly.

Note:- A comma is generally not placed before the word preceded by and.

 (2) To separate each pair of words connected by and; as,

We should be devout and humble, cheerful and serene.

High and low, rich and poor, wise and foolish, must all die.

 (3) After a Nominative Absolute; as,

This done, she returned to the old man with a lovely smile on her face.

The wind being favourable, the squadron sailed.

The genius making me no answer, I turned about to address myself to him a second time.

 (4) To mark off a Noun or Phrase in Apposition ; as,

Paul, the apostle, was beheaded in the reign of Nero.

Milton, the great English poet, was blind.

Pandit Nehru, the first prime Minister of India, died in 1964.

(5) To mark off words used in addressing people

Come into the garden, Maud.

How are you, Mohan?

(6) To mark off two or more Adverbs or Adverbial phrases coming together ; as,

Then, at length, tardy justice was done to the memory of Oliver.

 (7) Before and after a Participial phrase, provided that the phrase might be expanded into a sentence, and is not used in a merely qualifying sense; as,

Caesar, having conquered his enemies, returned to Rome.

 (8) Before and after words, phrases, or clauses, let into the body of a sentence; as,

He did not, however, gain his object.

It is mind, after all, which does the work of the world.

His behaviour, to say the least, was very rude.

 (9) To indicate the omission of a word, especially a verb; as,

Rama received a fountain pen; Hari, a watch.

He was a Brahmin; she, a Rajput.

He will succeed; you, never.

(10) To separate short co-ordinate clauses of a Compound sentence; as,

The rains descended, and the floods came.

Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever.

The minstrel was infirm and old.

(11) To mark off a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence; as,

"Exactly so," said Alice.

He said to his disciples, "Watch and pray."

"Go then," said the ant, "and dance winter away."

 (12) Before certain co-ordinative conjunctions; as,

To act thus is not wisdom, but folly.

 (14) To separate a Noun clause-whether subject or object preceding the verb; as,

Whatever is, is right.                 How we are ever to get there, is the question,

That he would succeed in his undertaking, no one ever doubted.

 (15) To separate a clause that is not restrictive in meaning, but is co-ordinate with the

Principal clause; as,

Sailors, who are generally superstitious, say it is unlucky to embark on a Friday.

During my stay in Sri Lanka I visited Mihintale, which is regarded as the cradle of Buddhism.

 (16) To separate an Adverbial clause from its Principal clause; as,

When I was a bachelor, I lived by myself.          If thou would 'st be happy, seek to please.

D. The Semicolon represents a pause of greater importance than that shown by the comma. It is used :-

(1) To separate the clauses of Compound sentence, when they contain a comma; as,

He was a brave, large-hearted man; and we all honoured him.

(2) To separate a series of loosely related clauses; as,

Her court was pure ; her life serene;                       God gave her peace; her land reposed.

Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we

shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear.

E. The Colon marks a still more complete pause than that expressed by the Semicolon.

It is used (sometimes with a dash after it): -

 (1) To introduce a quotation; as,

Bacon says :- “Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready man.”

 (2) Before enumeration, examples, etc; as,

The principal parts of a verb in English are: the present tense, the past Tense, and the past participle.

 (3) Between sentences grammatically independent but closely connected in sense; as,

Study to acquire a habit of thinking: no study is more important.

F. The Question Mark is used, instead of the Full Stop, after a direct question; as,

Have you written your exercise?

But the Question Mark is not used after an indirect question; as

He asked me whether I had written my exercise.

G. The Exclamation Mark is used after Interjections and after Phrases and Sentences expressing sudden emotion or wish ; as,

     Alas ! -- Oh dear !                             O, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! -- Long live the King !

    O father ! I hear the sound of guns.     O Hamlet, speak no more !

H.. Inverted Commas are used to enclose the exact words of a speaker, or a quotation; as,

"I would rather die," he exclaimed, "than join the oppressors of my country."

Babar is said by Elphinstone to have been "the most admirable prince that ever reigned in Asia."

If a quotation occurs within a quotation, it is marked by single inverted commas; as,

"You might as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like what I get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like,”

I. The Dash is used:-

(1) To indicate an abrupt stop or change of thought; as,

If my husband were alive – but why lament the past ?

 (2) To resume a scattered subject; as,.

Friends, companions, relatives - all deserted him.

J. The Hyphen - a shorter line than the Dash - is used to connect the parts of a compound word; as,

Passer-by, man-of-war, jack-of-all-trades.

It is also used to connect parts of a word divided at the end of a line.

K. Parentheses or Double Dashes are used to separate from the main part of the sentence a phrase or clause which does not grammatically belong to it; as,

He gained from Heaven (it was all he wished) a friend.

A remarkable instance of this kind of courage - call it, if you please, resolute will - is given in the history of Babar,

L. The Apostrophe is used:-

(1) To show the omission of a letter or letters; as, Don't, e'er, I've.

 (3) To form the plural of letters and figures.

Dot your i's and cross your t's.

Add two 5 's and four 2 's.