Punctuation marks are used in writing to make the meaning of the text clear.
Following are punctuation and its uses.
Terminal punctuations
Following are terminal punctuations.
1: Period. (AmE) or full stop. (BrE)
And
2: Question mark (?)
Full stop or period (.)
A full stop or period is used at the end of declarative and imperative sentences. For example.
She is a good girl.
They are going to Karachi.
Please bring me a glass of water.
Question mark (?)
A question mark is used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
A sentence with a question mark (❓) is read in the tone of asking a question.
Examples
What is your name?
Did you try the game?
Is she not playing football?
The exclamation mark (❗) is used in sentences that contain emotions and feelings. For example,
What a beautiful flower!
Wow, she has a beautiful dress!
Exclamation is also used after interjections (interjection is a word that expresses feeling and emotion); for example,
Hurray! We won the match.
Alas! Her father is dead.
Hurray and Alas are interjections and express the feelings of happiness and sadness, respectively.
Pauses
Pauses in English are commas (,), semicolons (;), and colons (:).
Uses of commas
The comma is used with salutations like letters and applications, for example,
Sir,
Ma’am,
Emma,
There is a difference in the usage of comma in American English (AmE) and British English (BrE).
(BrE) salutation uses commas,
(AmE) salutation uses Colon:
As far as the closing of the letter or application, etc. is concerned, both American and British English use commas, for example,
Yours faithfully,
Sincerely,
A comma is used for a list to separate items in a row. For example,
Sana, Sara, Ali, and Rabia are leaving for Pakistan.
Baking powder, vanilla essence, flour, eggs, and sugar are the ingredients of a cake.
The oxford comma is the last comma used before and in a list to separate items in a row, and it is not Mandatory to be placed; you can either put it or leave it.
In the above example, the comma after the egg can be placed or removed, so the sentence would be correct both ways.
The comma is also used for separate words that are not parts of the sentence; these are sentence adverbs.
Sentence adverbs are words that state the speaker’s opinion of the sentence, whereas regular adverbs tell more about words in the sentence, for example,
Sadly, he could not win the project.
Hopefully, you will get the scholarship.
Sadly and hopefully, are sentence adverbs, and show the opinion of the speaker about the sentence.
In the first sentence, the speaker thinks of the sentence as a sad thing, and in the second sentence, he is hopeful, so therefore he used the word hopefully.
A comma is used to separate linking words from other parts of the sentence.
Some linking words are as follows:
For example, anyway, meanwhile, still, that reminds me, in the meantime, etc.
Example sentences
You did wrong and ruined the plan. Anyway, leave the topic and move on.
I am washing clothes; meanwhile, you do your work, and then we will go together for a walk.
In the first example, only one comma is used to separate linking words anyway because it is at the beginning of the sentence and has a full stop before it.
In the second example, the linking word meanwhile is used in the middle of the sentence, and therefore, we have used two commas to separate it from the rest of the sentence.
The relative or adjective clause contains relative pronouns or relative adverbs.
Relative pronouns are as follows
Who
Which
That
Whom
Why, etc
Essential relative clause and non-essential relative clause Essential relative clause is a clause that is important part of the sentence, and without it sentence cannot convey complete thought, whereas the non-essential relative clause is part of the sentence which is not necessary to be added to the sentence to complete it’s thought, and the first part of the sentence can be meaningful without the non-essential clause.
Now the rule, here is that we add comma before the non-essential relative clause and we do not add comma with essential relative clause
Uses of semicolon;
Semicolon is used for sentences that are closely related to one another. For example, we went to the shopping mall my friend liked the red dress; I liked the green dress.
Uses of colon: it is only used after an independent clause; the only exception is headings where there is just one word or few; not a complete sentence.
Example
Her kitchen has three items: spoons, plates, and bowls.
The same sentence if made dependent would not use colon for example,
Her kitchen has three items that are spoons, plates, and bowls.
Her kitchen has three items is a complete sentence, therefore a colon is used
Her kitchen has three items that are
The above sentence is incomplete, therefore colon is not used.
Apostrophe is used for contractions that is to combine two words into a single word for example,
I’m a teacher
She’s (she is) a doctor
She’s (she has) a great choice
He’d (he had)done the the homework at that time
He’d (he would)do all the home chores
Apostrophe is also used to show possessions for example,
Anita’s umbrella
Ali’s car
Uncle’s house
What if the word already has an s at the end?
There are two rules for the above situation.
If the word has s at the end and is singular, then we can add the apostrophe s, or we can just put the apostrophe sign after the last s, for example.
Thomas’
Thomas’s
Both of the above examples are correct.
In the case of the plural, only the apostrophe sign is added, not s, for example.
Boys’ is right.
Boys’s is wrong.
What about possessive pronouns like yours, hers, ours, theirs, its, etc.
With possessive pronouns, we do not use an apostrophe.
The word it’s with an apostrophe is a contraction that means it is or it has; its without an apostrophe is a possessive pronoun and shows possession.
It with an apostrophe
It’s a good deal.
It’s been a while that I haven’t met her.
It’s my car.
Its a possessive pronoun.
The cat ate its food.
The machine completed its time, and stopped.
