punctuation

Everyday

1. Punctuation is the set of marks we use in writing, such as full stops, commas, question marks and apostrophes, to make the meaning clear and show where to pause. tree →
2. Punctuation is also the way you use these marks: «Check your punctuation». tree →

In the lessons

In English lessons, punctuation is taught with grammar and spelling (GPS, SPaG): capital letters and full stops, commas in lists, question and exclamation marks, apostrophes for missing letters and possession, speech marks (inverted commas), brackets, dashes, colons, semicolons and hyphens. Good punctuation helps the reader: «Let's eat, Grandma!» vs «Let's eat Grandma!» Phrases: «punctuation marks», «check your punctuation», «correct punctuation».

Examples

• Remember your punctuation: capital letter at the start, full stop at the end. tree →
• A question mark is a punctuation mark. tree →
• Commas save lives: «Let's eat, Grandma!» tree →
• My teacher said my punctuation in speech was excellent. tree →
• Use speech marks around the words a character says. tree →
• The test had ten punctuation questions. tree →
• Without punctuation, the sentence was hard to read. tree →
• Americans call a full stop a «period». tree →

Note

Uncountable: «good punctuation», not «punctuations»; for one mark say «a punctuation mark». In the USA: period (full stop), quotation marks (speech marks). Common traps: «its» (belonging) vs «it's» (it is); no apostrophe in simple plurals (apples, not apple's).