Punctuation marks

Punctuation means putting in points and stops in writing.

. full stop is placed at the end of a sentence, and in abbreviations.
e.g. He got his B.A. degree.

, comma It is used -
- to separate words in a list.
e.g. coffee, milk, rice, biscuits, etc.
- to separate phrases or clauses.
e.g. If you don’t speak, I shall go away.
- to separate a question from the rest of the sentence.
e.g. It’s very nice, isn’t it?
before or after ‘he said’ in a conversation.
e.g. “Nothing will happen to me”, he said.

; semi colon is used to separate parts of a sentence that already contains commas.
e.g. She was firm in her stand; she would act on it, whenever she wanted to.

? question mark is used at the end of a direct question.
e.g. Where is the bag?
Is he going?

! exclamation mark occurs at the end of a sentence expressing surprise, joy, anger, shock, etc.
e.g. That’s great!
Oh, God!

’ apostrophe is used to show that a thing or person belongs to somebody.
e.g. my sister’s car
students’ corner
It is also used in short forms, to indicate that letters or figures have been omitted.
e.g. I’m (I am )
They’d (they had, they would)

“ ” quotation marks are used to enclose words in direct speech
e.g. “Why were you absent?” he asked.
”I had gone to Chennai”, she said.