Punctuation

If you master these, your writing will immediately become 80% clearer. 

• The Full Stop / Period (.): Used to end a complete thought.

  • My cat is black.

• The Comma (,): Used for short pauses, separating items in a list, or connecting two ideas with a conjunction (like and, but, or).

  • My cat is black, but my frog is green.

• The Question Mark (?): Used only at the end of a direct question.

  • What colour is your lizard?

• Capital Letters (A, B, C): Always used for the start of a sentence, the pronoun "I," and Proper Nouns (names of people, places, months, and days).

  • Well, I love the cinnamon buns from that one café in Stockholm.

As you advance, you need tools that show the relationship between complex ideas.

• The Semicolon (;): Connects two independent sentences that are closely related.

  • I love teaching English; it is a rewarding profession.

• The Colon (:): Used to introduce a list, a quote, or an explanation.

  • And he said: "Play the best song in the world .. Or I'll eat your souls."

• Apostrophes ('):

  • Contractions: To show missing letters (don't, can't).

  • I do not like sausages! I don't!

  • Possession: To show who owns what (the student's book).

  • Is this your book? Yes, the book's mine.

Please note: "Its" (possession) vs "It's" (it is) is an incredible common mistake that we all make.

Rewrite the following paragraph adding capital letters, full stops, and commas.

my name is marco and i live in rome italy i have two sisters and a dog named fido every monday we go to the park together do you like animals

Choose the correctly punctuated sentence from the pairs below.

A: I wanted to go for a run, however, it started raining.

B: I wanted to go for a run; however, it started raining.

A: The three students' projects were all excellent.

B: The three student's projects were all excellent.

A: You need three things: patience, practice, and a good dictionary.

B: You need three things; patience, practice and a good dictionary.