Punctuation Anton

Over-view Apostrophe ’ Question mark ? Full stop. C apital letter Colon : Comma, Exclamation mark ! Dash - Semi-colon ; Speech marks “”

Apostrophe To show possession Emily’s job To show possession Emily’s job For contractions It’s late For contractions It’s late

Capital letter To begin a sentence To begin a sentence She wrote to me. Names, pronoun I, countries, nationalities, cities, days of the week, months, titles Names, pronoun I, countries, nationalities, cities, days of the week, months, titles Rob and I, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan, Colombo, Sunday, July, The Times

Colon : To introduce a list To introduce a list There are three reasons: Before an explanation/extra information/example/ quotation Before an explanation/extra information/example/ quotation She was worried: it was getting dark.

Comma, For items in a list For items in a list I bought apples, oranges and bananas. To divide groups of words To divide groups of words He got up, had a shower and left.

Comma Around non-defining relative clauses and other inserted phrases Around non-defining relative clauses and other inserted phrases My father, who lived at Waikkala, was a researcher. She is, however, very intelligent.

Comma Before question tags It’s late, isn’t it? After if time clauses and other introductory phrases If I were you, I’d redesign. When it rains, I take an umbrella.

Comma In direct speech ‘It’s late,’ he said.

Dash - To separate extra information The third man- Tim- was also late.

Exclamation mark ! For emotional emphasis What a lovely day!

Full stop. To show the end of a sentence I am tired. Abbreviations, decimals, prices, time E.g. 3.5

Semi-colon ; To separate two main clauses with a link in meaning It was dark; it was getting late.

Speech mark “” To show exact words “I’ll help you,” he said.