Punctuation in English : Mega Guide to Punctuation

Punctuation marks

When we speak, we stop at intervals to make ourselves intelligible to others. When we write, we use stops in order to make our meaning clear. The use of these stops or marks is called Punctuation.
These 'marks' of punctuation are a great help to the reader and, if properly used, enable him to understand what he or she is reading. A long passage unpunctuated or incorrectly punctuated is much more difficult to understand that the same passage correctly punctuated.

The following are the stops (punctuation marks)  in general use:

• Comma
• Semicolon
• Colon
• Full Stop
• Note of interrogation(?)
• Mark of exclamation (!)

The first four are time stops and mark stops of different lengths. The comma marks the shortest and the full stop, the longest stop.
There are other stops too. They are Question marks, the dash, the brackets, the hyphen and the apostrophe.

Comma (,) :

Uses of comma:

• To seperate words or phrases in apposition
  Example: Gavaskar, the captain, went in to bat.
• To separate the words of same part of speech in a sentence
  Example:He was a wise, learned and upright man.
• After an absolute phrase
  Example:The sun having risen, I left my bed.
• After a nominative of address
  Example:Children, do not make a noise in the romm
• After words of same class going in pairs
  Example: He searched for his friend far and near, high and low, in and out.
• To separate the Subordinate Adverbial clause from the rest of the sentence
  Example:If you do this by tomorrow, I shall be satisfied.
• To separate a clause used in a continuative sense
  Example:I gave the book to him, who handed it over to his friend.
• To separate direct quotation
  Example: "No", said my father, "it cannot be done."
• Before and after words, phrases, or clauses
  Example: He did not, however, gain a big object.

Semicolon (;)

Uses of semicolon :

• To separate the clauses of a compound sentence
  Example: He was brave and large-hearted; so everybody praised him
• To separate loosely related clauses
  Example: Reading makes a full man; speaking, a ready man; writing, an exact man.

Colon (:)

Uses of colon :

• To introduce a quotation
  Example: Bacon says : "Reading makes a full man; speaking, a ready man; writing, an exact man"
• Before examples and explanations
  Example: The main parts of the verb in English are : the present, the past and the past participle
• To separate two contrasted statements
  Example: Man proposes: God disposes.
• To introduce a statement which directly supports the previous one
  Example: He is too much of a cynic : he does not listen to any one.

 

Full Stop (.)

Uses of full stop:

• At the end of every sentence.
• After abbreviations : i.e. M.P. , A. , etc,.

Interrogation (?)

Uses of interrogation :

• After every direct question
  Example: Are you ready now?
• It is not used in the indirect form

Exclamation (!)

Uses of Exclamation

• Used after phrases and sentences expressing sudden emotion or wish
  Example: What a great loss!

Quotation marks or Inverted Commas (" ")

Uses of quotation marks

• These are used in direct speech
  Example: He said, "What a nice rainbow it is!"

Dash (-)

Uses of Dash

• To indicate an abrupt stop or change of thought
  Example: If my friend were alive - but why talk about what is impossible?
• To resume a scattered subject
  Example: Money, health, friends - everything he had.

Apostrophe (')

Uses of Apostrophe

• to make the omission of a letter or letters as Don't, I've.
• in the nouns of a Possessive case; as, Ram's book.
• to make the plurals of figures and letters; 5's , t's .

Brackets [()]

Uses of Brackets

• may be used in place of double dashes to mark off parenthetical sentence from the main one
  Example: When he left the company ( it is twelve years ago) he was not a baby.

Capitals

Uses of capitals

• When beginning a sentence
• When beginning a new line in a poem.
• When writing proper nouns and adjectives derived from them; as; Delhi, Africa, etc,.
• For all nouns and pronouns which indicate some god; as, The Lord, He, Him, etc.
• When beginning a direct narration in a sentence; as, He said,"Love one another as brothers".
• When writing the names of months and days,seasons, title of books, names of place,etc.

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