Punctuation
Why do we need
punctuation?
Punctuation marks are essential when
you are writing. They show the reader where sentences start and finish and if
they are used properly they make your writing easy to understand. This section
gives practical guidance on how to use commas, semicolons, and other types
of punctuation correctly, so that your writing will always be clear and
effective.
You may find some aspects of
punctuation harder to grasp than others (for example, when to use a
semicolon or a colon). If so, just click on the relevant heading in the list to
the left. There are also handy sections with advice on using punctuation when
writing direct speech, lists, or abbreviations.
Types of
punctuation
- full stop
- comma
- semicolon
- colon
- apostrophe
- hyphen
- dash
- brackets
- inverted commas
- exclamation mark
- question mark
- bullet point
Full stop (.)
Full stops are used:
-
to mark the end of a sentence that is a complete statement:
My name’s Beth and I was 18
in July.
After leaving school,
she went to work in an insurance company.
-
to mark the end of a group of words that don’t form a conventional sentence, so as to emphasize a statement:
I keep reliving that moment.
Over and over again.
-
in some abbreviations, for example etc., Dec., or p.m.:
The coffee morning will be
held on Thursday 15 Sept. in the Waterfront Restaurant.
There’s a wide range of
sandwiches, pies, cakes, etc. at very reasonable prices.
-
in website and email addresses:
If an abbreviation with a full stop comes at the
end of a sentence you don’t need to add another
full stop:
Bring your own pens, pencils,
rulers, etc.
Comma (,)
A comma marks a slight break between different
parts of a sentence. Used properly, commas make the meaning of sentences clear
by grouping and separating words, phrases, and clauses. Many people are
uncertain about the use of commas, though, and often sprinkle them
throughout their writing without knowing the basic rules.
Here are the main cases when you
need to use a comma:
You need to put a comma between the different items in
a list, as in the following sentences:
Saturday morning started with
a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and French
toast.
The school has a vegetable
garden in which the children grow cabbages, onions, potatoes, and
carrots.
The final comma in these lists (before the word
‘and’) is known as the ‘serial comma’. Not all writers or publishers use it, but
it is used by Oxford Dictionaries – some people refer to it as ‘the Oxford
comma’. Using it can make your meaning clearer. Take a look at this
sentence:
My favourite
sandwiches are chicken, bacon and ham and
cheese.
It isn’t entirely clear from this sentence whether the
writer is listing three or four of their favourite sandwich fillings: is ‘ham’
one of their favourites and ‘cheese’ another, or is it ‘ham and cheese’ that
they like? Adding an Oxford comma makes the meaning clear:
My favourite
sandwiches are chicken, bacon, and ham and
cheese.
When a writer quotes a speaker’s words exactly as they
were spoken, this is known as direct speech. If the piece of direct speech comes after the information about
who is speaking, you need to use a comma to introduce the direct speech. The
comma comes before the first quotation mark. Note that the final quotation mark
follows the full stop at the end of the direct
speech:
Steve replied, ‘No
problem.’
You also need to use a comma at the end of a piece of
direct speech, if the speech comes before the information about who is speaking.
In this case, the comma goes inside the quotation mark:
‘I don’t agree,’ I
replied.
‘Here we
are,' they said.
There are two exceptions to this
rule. If a piece of direct speech takes the form of a question or an
exclamation, you should end it with a question mark or an exclamation mark,
rather than a comma:
‘Stop
him!’ she shouted.
‘Did you see that?’ he
asked.
Direct speech is often broken up by the information
about who is speaking. In these cases, you need a comma to end the first piece
of speech (inside the quotation mark) and another comma before the second piece
(before the quotation mark):
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘and I always
keep my promises.’
‘Thinking back,’ she added,
‘I didn’t expect to win.’
Commas are used to separate
clauses in a
complex sentence
(i.e. a sentence which is made up of a main clause and
one or more subordinate clauses).
The following examples show the use of commas in two
complex sentences:
Having had lunch,
|
we went back to work.
|
[subordinate clause]
|
[main clause]
|
I first saw her in Paris,
|
where I lived in the early
nineties.
|
[main clause]
|
[subordinate
clause]
|
If the commas were removed, these sentences wouldn’t be as clear but the meaning would still be the same. There are different types of subordinate clause, though, and in some types the use of commas can be very important.
A subordinate clause beginning with ‘who’, ‘which’,
‘that’, ‘whom’, or ‘where’ is known as a relative clause.
Take a look at this example:
Passengers
|
who have young children
|
may board the aircraft first.
|
[relative clause]
|
This sentence contains what’s known as a ‘restrictive relative clause’. Basically, a restrictive relative clause contains information that’s essential to the meaning of the sentence as a whole. If you left it out, the sentence wouldn’t make much sense. If we removed the relative clause from the example above, then the whole point of that sentence would be lost and we’d be left with the rather puzzling statement:
Passengers may board the
aircraft first.
You should not put commas round a restrictive
relative clause.
The other type of subordinate clause beginning with
‘who’, ‘which’, ‘whom’, etc. is known as a ‘non-restrictive relative clause’. A non-restrictive relative clause contains information that is
not essential to the overall meaning of a sentence. Take a look at the following
example:
Mary,
|
who has two young children,
|
has a part-time job in the
library.
|
[relative clause]
|
If you remove this clause, the meaning of the sentence isn’t affected and it still makes perfect sense. All that’s happened is that we’ve lost a bit of extra information about Mary:
Mary has a part-time job in
the library.
You need to put a comma both before and after a
non-restrictive relative clause.
Commas are used to separate a part
of a sentence that is an optional ‘aside’ and not part of the main
statement.
Gunpowder is not, of course,
a chemical compound.
His latest film, Calypso
Dreams, opens next month.
In these sentences, the role of the commas is similar
to their function in non-restrictive relative clauses: they mark off information
that isn’t essential to the overall meaning. Using commas in this way can really
help to clarify the meaning of a sentence. Take a look at this
example:
Cynthia’s daughter, Sarah, is
a midwife.
The writer’s use of commas tells us that Cynthia has
only one daughter. If you removed Sarah’s name from the sentence, there would
still be no doubt as to who was the midwife:
Cynthia’s daughter is a
midwife.
If you rewrite the original sentence without commas its
meaning changes:
Cynthia’s daughter Sarah is a
midwife.
The lack of commas tells us that the name ‘Sarah’ is
crucial to the understanding of the sentence. It shows that Cynthia has more
than one daughter, and so the name of the one who is a midwife needs to be
specified for the meaning to be clear.
If you aren’t sure whether you’ve
used a pair of commas correctly, try replacing them with brackets or removing
the information enclosed by the commas altogether, and then see if the sentence
is still understandable, or if it still conveys the meaning you
intended.
Semicolon (;)
The main task of the semicolon is to mark a break that is
stronger than a comma but not as final as a full stop. It’s used between two main clauses that balance each other
and are too closely linked to be made into separate sentences, as in these two
examples:
The road runs through a beautiful wooded valley;
the railway line follows it.
An art director searched North Africa; I went to
the Canary Islands.
You can also use a semicolon as a stronger division in a sentence that
already contains commas:
The study showed the following: 76% of surveyed
firms monitor employee Web-surfing activities, with 65% blocking access to
unauthorized Internet locations; over one-third of the firms monitor employee
computer keystrokes; half reported storing and reviewing employee emails; 57%
monitor employee telephone behaviour, including the inappropriate use of
voicemail.
Colon (:)
There are three main uses
of the colon:
-
between two main clauses in cases where the second clause explains or follows from the first:
That is the secret
of my extraordinary life: always do the
unexpected.
It wasn’t easy: to begin with, I had to
find the right house.
-
to introduce a list:
The price includes the
following: travel to London, flight to Venice, hotel accommodation, and
excursions.
The job calls for skills
in the following areas: proofing, editing, and
database administration.
-
before a quotation, and sometimes before direct speech:
The headline read: ‘Taxi
Driver Battles Gangsters’.
They shouted: ‘Our families
are starving! We need land!’
Apostrophe (’)
Are you uncertain about when to use an
apostrophe? Many people have difficulty with this punctuation mark. The best way
to get apostrophes right is to understand when and why they are
used. There are two
main cases – click on the links below to find straightforward
guidance:
People are often unsure about whether they should
use its (without an apostrophe) or it’s (with
an apostrophe). For information about this, you can go straight to the section
it's or its?
You use an apostrophe to show that a thing or person belongs or
relates to someone or something: instead of saying the party of
Ben or the weather of
yesterday, you can write Ben’s party and
yesterday’s weather.
Here are the main guidelines
for using apostrophes to show possession:
Singular nouns and most personal names
With a singular noun or most personal names: add an apostrophe plus
s:
We met at Ben’s party.
The dog’s tail wagged rapidly.
Yesterday’s weather was
dreadful.
Personal names that end in –s
With personal names that end in
-s: add an apostrophe plus
s when you would naturally pronounce an extra
s if you said the word out loud:
He joined Charles’s army in
1642.
Dickens's novels provide a wonderful
insight into Victorian England.
Thomas's brother was injured in the
accident.
Note that there are some
exceptions to this rule, especially in names of places or organizations, for
example:
St Thomas’ Hospital
If you aren’t sure about how to spell a name, look
it up in an official place such as the organization’s
website.
With personal names that end in
-s but are not spoken with
an extra s: just add an apostrophe after the
-s:
The court dismissed Bridges'
appeal.
Connors' finest performance was in
1991.
Plural nouns that end in –s
With a plural noun that already ends in
-s: add an apostrophe after the
s:
The mansion was converted into a girls’
school.
The work is due to start in two weeks’
time.
My duties included cleaning out the horses’
stables.
Plural nouns that do not end in -s
With a plural noun that doesn’t end in –s: add an apostrophe
plus s:
The children’s father came round to see
me.
He employs 14 people at his men’s clothing
store.
The only cases in which you do not need an
apostrophe to show belonging is in the group of words called possessive pronouns
- these are the words his,
hers, ours,
yours, theirs (meaning
‘belonging to him, her, us, you, or them’) - and with the possessive
determiners. These are the words his,
hers, its, our, your, their
(meaning 'belonging to or associated with him, her, it, us, you, or them'). See
also it's or its?
An apostrophe can be used to show that letters or numbers have
been omitted. Here are some examples of apostrophes that indicate
missing letters:
I’m - short for I
am
he’ll - short for
he will
she’d – short for she had or she would
pick ‘n’ mix - short for
pick and mix
it’s hot - short for
it is hot
didn’t - short for
did not
It also shows that numbers have been omitted, especially in dates,
e.g. the Berlin Wall came down in the autumn of ’89 (short
for 1989).
These two words can cause a lot of confusion: many people
are uncertain about whether or not to use an apostrophe. These are
the rules to remember:
-
its (without an apostrophe) means ‘belonging to it’:
The dog wagged its tail.
Each case is judged on its own
merits.
-
it’s (with an apostrophe) means ‘it is’ or ‘it has’:
It’s been a long day.
It’s cold outside.
It’s a comfortable car and it’s got some
great gadgets.
The general rule is that you should not use an
apostrophe to form the plurals of nouns, abbreviations, or dates made up of
numbers: just add -s (or -es, if the noun in question forms
its plural with -es). For example:
euro
|
euros
|
(e.g. The cost of the trip is 570
euros.)
|
pizza
|
pizzas
|
(e.g. Traditional Italian pizzas are thin and
crisp.)
|
apple
|
apples
|
(e.g. She buys big bags of organic apples and
carrots.)
|
MP
|
MPs
|
(e.g. Local MPs are divided on this
issue.)
|
1990
|
1990s
|
(e.g. The situation was different in the
1990s.)
|
It's very important to remember this grammatical rule.
There are one or two cases in
which it is acceptable to use an apostrophe to form a plural, purely for the
sake of clarity:
-
you can use an apostrophe to show the plurals of single letters:
I've dotted the i's and crossed the
t's.
Find all the p's in
appear.
-
you can use an apostrophe to show the plurals of single numbers:
Find all the number 7’s.
These are the only cases in which it is
generally considered acceptable to use an apostrophe to form plurals: remember
that an apostrophe should never be used to form the
plural of ordinary nouns, names, abbreviations, or numerical
dates.
Hyphen (-)
Hyphens are used to link words and parts of words. They are not as common
today as they used to be, but there are three main cases where you should use
them:
Hyphens are used in many compound words to show that the component words
have a combined meaning (e.g. a pick-me-up, mother-in-law,
good-hearted) or that there is a relationship between the words that
make up the compound: for example, rock-forming minerals
are minerals that form rocks. But you don’t need to use them in every type of
compound word.
Compound adjectives
Compound adjectives are made up of a noun + an adjective, a noun + a participle, or an adjective + a participle. Many compound adjectives
should be hyphenated. Here are some examples:
noun + adjective
|
noun + participle
|
adjective + participle |
accident-prone
|
computer-aided
|
good-looking |
sugar-free
|
power-driven
|
quick-thinking |
carbon-neutral
|
user-generated
|
bad-tempered |
sport-mad
|
custom-built
|
fair-haired |
camera-ready
|
muddle-headed
|
open-mouthed |
With compound adjectives formed from the adverb well and a participle (e.g. well-known), or from a phrase (e.g. up-to-date), you should use a hyphen when the compound comes before the noun:
well-known brands of coffee
an up-to-date account
but not when the compound comes after the noun:
His music was also well known in England.
Their figures are up to date.
It’s important to use hyphens in compound adjectives describing ages and
lengths of time: leaving them out can make the meaning ambiguous. For example,
250-year-old trees clearly refers to trees that are 250
years old, while 250 year old trees could equally refer to
250 trees that are all one year old.
Compound verbs
Use a hyphen when a compound formed from two nouns is made into a verb, for
example:
noun
|
verb
|
an ice skate
|
to ice-skate
|
a booby trap
|
to booby-trap
|
a spot check
|
to spot-check
|
a court martial
|
to court-martial
|
Phrasal verbs
You should NOT put a hyphen within phrasal verbs - verbs made up of a
main verb and an adverb or preposition. For example:
Phrasal verb
|
Example
|
build up
|
You should continue to build up your pension.
|
break in
|
They broke in by forcing a lock on the door.
|
stop off |
We stopped off in Hawaii on the way
home.
|
If a phrasal verb is made into a noun, though, you SHOULD use a hyphen:
Noun
|
Example
|
build-up
|
There was a build-up of traffic on the ring road.
|
break-in |
The house was unoccupied at the time of the break-in.
|
stop-off |
We knew there would be a stop-off in Singapore for
refuelling.
|
Compound nouns
A compound noun is one consisting of two component nouns. In principle,
such nouns can be written in one of three different ways:
one word
|
two words
|
hyphenated
|
aircrew
|
air crew
|
air-crew
|
playgroup
|
play group
|
play-group
|
chatroom
|
chat room
|
chat-room
|
In the past, these sorts of compounds were usually hyphenated, but the situation is different today. The tendency is now to write them as either one word or two separate words. However, the most important thing to note is that you should choose one style and stick to it within a piece of writing. Don’t refer to a playgroup in one paragraph and a play-group in another.
Hyphens can be used to join a prefix to another word, especially
if the prefix ends in a vowel and the other word also begins with one (e.g.
pre-eminent or co-own). This use is
less common than it used to be, though, and one-word forms are becoming more
usual (e.g. prearrange or
cooperate).
Use a hyphen to separate a prefix from a name or date, e.g.
post-Aristotelian or pre-1900.
Use a hyphen to avoid confusion with another word: for example, to
distinguish re-cover (= provide something with a new
cover) from recover (= get well again).
Hyphens can also be used to divide words that are not usually
hyphenated.
They show where a word is to be divided at the end of a line of writing.
Always try to split the word in a sensible place, so that the first part does
not mislead the reader: for example, hel-met
not he-lmet; dis-abled not
disa-bled.
Hyphens are also used to stand for a common second element in all but the
last word of a list, e.g.:
You may see a yield that is two-, three-, or fourfold.
Dash (–)
A dash is used:
-
in pairs, to mark off information or ideas that are not essential to an understanding of the rest of the sentence:
Thousands of children – like the girl in
this photograph – have been left homeless.
My son – where has he gone? – would
like to meet you.
-
to show other kinds of break in a sentence where a comma, semicolon, or colon would be traditionally used:
One thing’s for sure – he doesn’t
want to face the truth.
Things have changed a lot in the last year –
mainly for the better.
Dashes are especially common in informal writing,
such as personal emails or blogs, but it’s best to use them
sparingly when you are writing
formally.
Inverted commas
Inverted commas can be single - ‘x’ - or double - ‘’x‘’. They are also
known as quotation marks, speech
marks, or
quotes.
Main uses
Inverted commas are mainly used in the following cases:
-
to mark the beginning and end of direct speech (i.e. a speaker’s words written down exactly as they were spoken):
‘That,’ he said, ‘is nonsense.’
‘What time will he arrive?’ she asked.
See more information about how to use punctuation when you’re writing direct speech.
-
to mark off a word or phrase that’s being discussed, or that’s being directly quoted from somewhere else:
He called this phenomenon ‘the memory of
water’.
What does ‘integrated circuit’ mean?
Single or double?
There’s no rule about which to use but you should stick to one or the other
throughout a piece of writing. Single inverted commas are generally more common
in British English while American English tends to prefer double ones.
If you find that you need to enclose quoted material within direct speech
or another quotation, use the style you haven’t used already. So, if you’ve been
using single inverted commas, put any further quoted material within double ones
and vice versa. For example:
She still sounds amazed when she says: ‘We were
turned down because “we represented too small a minority of the population”.
They could still get away with saying things like that then.’
Exclamation mark (!)
The main use of the exclamation mark is to end
sentences that express:
-
an exclamation:
Ow! That
hurt!
Hello! How are
you?
-
direct speech that represents something shouted or spoken very loudly:
‘Look up there!’ she
yelled.
-
something that amuses the writer:
Included on the list
of banned items was 'crochet hooks'!
-
An exclamation mark can also be used in brackets after a statement to show that the writer finds it funny or ironic:
She says she’s stopped
feeling insecure (!) since she met him.
People tend to use a lot of exclamation marks in
informal writing such as emails or text messages, but you should avoid using
them in formal writing.
Question mark (?)
A question mark is used to indicate the end of a question:
Have you seen the film
yet?
He asked if I had seen
the film yet.
A question mark can also be used in brackets to
show that the writer is unconvinced by a statement:
I’m about to get
started on the new project, which is apparently quite straightforward
(?).
Bullet points
Bullet points are used to draw attention to important information within a document so that a reader can identify the key issues and facts quickly. There are no fixed rules about how to use them, but here are some guidelines.
- The text introducing the list of bullet points should end with a colon.
- If the text that follows the bullet point is not a proper sentence, it doesn’t need to begin with a capital letter and it shouldn’t end with a full stop, for example:
Tonight's
agenda includes:
- annual review of capital gains issues
- outstanding inheritance tax issues
- If the text following the bullet point IS a complete sentence, it should begin with a capital letter. A full stop at the end is technically required but is not absolutely essential:
The
agenda for tonight is as
follows:
- We will conduct an annual review of capital gains issues.
- The senior tax manager will talk about outstanding inheritance tax issues.
- Lists of bullet points will have more impact if each one begins with the same word class (or part of speech) and if they are all of a similar length. Action verbs are a good choice for the first word, i.e. verbs that describe the performing of an action. If you do use verbs, make sure that each one is in the same tense. Here’s an example of the effective use of action verbs in a person’s CV/résumé:
Duties and
responsibilities included:
- teaching national curriculum to Key Stage 1 pupils
- reaching attainment targets and improving learning performance
- developing extracurricular sports programme
- Bullet points tend to have more impact if their text is relatively short. Make sure you use the same typeface and margin width within each section.
Bullet points are
visually attractive and
make it easy for a reader to
locate important information.
Nevertheless, try to use them sparingly: too many
bullet-pointed sections in the same document will mean
that their impact is
lost.
See also
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