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What Are the Fourteen Punctuation Marks in English Grammar?
Knowing where and when to use the fourteen punctuation marks found in English grammar can greatly improve your writing skills.
What are the fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar? They are the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipses.
Sentence Endings
Three of the fourteen punctuation marks are appropriate for use as sentence endings. They are the period, question mark, and exclamation point.
The period (.) is placed at the end of declarative sentences, statements thought to be complete and after many abbreviations.
For example:
• As a sentence ender: Jane and Jack went to the market .
• After an abbreviation: Her Mar . birthday came and went.
Use a question mark (?) to indicate a direct question when placed at the end of a sentence. For example: When did Jane leave for the market ?
The exclamation point/mark (!) is used when a person wants to express a sudden outcry or add emphasis.
Within dialogue: “Holy cow!” screamed Jane.
To emphasize a point: My mother-in-law's rants make me furious !
Comma, Semicolon and Colon
The comma, semicolon and colon are often misused because they all can indicate a pause in a series.
The comma is used to show a separation of ideas or elements within the structure of a sentence. Additionally, it is used in letter writing after the salutation and closing.
• Separating elements within sentences: Suzi wanted the black , green , and blue shoes.
• Letter Salutations: Dear Uncle John ,
• Separation of two complete sentences: We went to the movies , and we went to the beach.
The semicolon (;) is used to connect independent clauses. It shows a closer relationship between the clauses than a period would show. For example: John was hurt ; he knew she only said it to upset him.
A colon (:) has two main uses:
The first is after a word introducing a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series. It is also often used after the salutation of a business letter.
The second is within time expressions. Within time, it is used to separate out the hour and minute: 12 : 15 p.m.
Dash and the Hyphen
Two kinds of dashes are used throughout written communications. They are the endash and the emdash. An endash is a symbol (-) that is used in writing or printing to connect numbers or to connect elements of a compound adjective, such as 1880 - 1945 or Princeton - New York trains.
However, the emdash has more complicated grammatical use. The symbol of is used to:
Indicate a break in thought or sentence structure
Introduce a phrase added for emphasis, definition, or explanation
Separate two clauses
Use it in the following manner: We only wanted to get two birds but the clerk talked us into four pregnant parakeets.
A hyphen (-) is the same symbol as the endash. However, it has slightly different usage rules. A hyphen is used between the parts of a compound word or name or between the syllables of a word, especially when divided at the end of a line of text.
Examples of this in use include:
• Between a compound name: Mrs. Smith - Reynolds
• Within a compound word: back - to - back
• Between syllables of a word when text is on divided:
The thought - ful girl brought cookies to her ailing neighbor.
Brackets, Braces and Parentheses
Brackets, braces and parentheses are symbols used to contain words that are a further explanation or are considered a group.
Parentheses ( () ) are curved notations used to contain further thoughts or qualifying remarks. However, parentheses can be replaced by commas without changing the meaning in most cases. For example: John and Jane ( who were actually half brother and sister ) both have red hair.
Brackets are the squared off notations ([]) used for technical explanations. YourDictionary uses them when you look up word definitions. At the bottom of each definition page, brackets surround a technical description of where the word originated.
Braces ({}) are used to contain two or more lines of text or listed items to show that they are considered as a unit. They are not commonplace in most writing, but can be seen in computer programming to show what should be contained within the same lines.
Apostrophe, Quotation Marks and Ellipses
The final three punctuation forms in English grammar are the apostrophe, quotation marks and ellipses. Unlike previously mentioned grammatical marks, they are not related to one another in any form.
An apostrophe (') is used to indicate the omission of a letter or letters from a word, the possessive case, or the plurals of lowercase letters.
Examples of the apostrophe in use include:
• Omission of letters from a word: An issue of nat'l importance.
• Possesive case: Sara's dog bites.
• Plural for lowercase letters: Six people were told to mind their p's and q's. It should be noted that, according to Purdue University, some teachers and editors enlarge the scope of the use of apostrophe, and prefer their use on symbols (&'s), numbers (7's) and capitalized letters (Q&A's), even though they are not necessary.
Quotations marks ( “” ) are a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word. They are also used to indicate meanings and to indicate the unusual or dubious status of a word.
Single quotation marks (') are used most frequently for quotes within quotes.
The ellipses mark is generally represented by three periods (. . . ) although it is occasionally demonstrated with three asterisks (***). The ellipses are used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words. Ellipses are frequently used within quotations to jump from one phrase to another, omitting unnecessary words that do not interfere with the meaning. Students writing research papers or newspapers quoting parts of speeches will often employ ellipses to avoid copying lengthy text that is not needed.
The Colon
There is only one thing left to do now: confess while you still have time.
The charter review committee now includes the following people:
You nearly always have a sense of what is going to follow or be on the other side of the colon. (Compare the function of a semicolon in this regard.) You will find differing advice on the use of a colon to introduce a vertical or display list. See Using Numbers and Creating Lists.
We will often use a colon to separate an independent clause from a quotation (often of a rather formal nature) that the clause introduces:
The acting director often used her favorite quotation from Shakespeare's Tempest: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
With today's sophisticated word-processing programs (which know how much space to put after punctuation marks), we insert only one space (hit the space-bar only once) after a colon.
It might be useful to say, also, when we don't use a colon. Remember that the clause that precedes the mark (where you're considering a colon) ought to be able to stand on its own as an independent clause. Its purpose might be strictly to introduce the clause that follows, so it might feel rather incomplete by itself, but grammatically it will have both a subject and a predicate. In other words, we would not use a colon in situations like the following:
Her recipe for gunpowder included saltpeter, dry oatmeal, and ground-up charcoal briquets. (no colon after "included")
His favorite breakfast cereals were Rice Krispies, Cheerios, and Wheaties. (no colon after "were")
Her usual advice, I remember, was "Keep your head up as you push the ball up the court." (no colon after "was")
One of the most frequently asked questions about colons is whether we should begin an independent clause that comes after a colon with a capital letter. If the independent clause coming after the colon is a formal quote, begin that quoted language with a capital letter.
Whitehead had this to say about writing style: "Style is the ultimate morality of mind."
If the explanatory statement coming after a colon consists of more than one sentence, begin the independent clause immediately after the colon with a capital letter:
There were two reasons for a drop in attendance at NBA games this season: First, there was no superstar to take the place of Michael Jordan. Second, fans were disillusioned about the misbehavior of several prominent players.
If the introductory phrase preceding the colon is very brief and the clause following the colon represents the real business of the sentence, begin the clause after the colon with a capital letter:
Remember: Many of the prominent families of this New England state were slaveholders prior to 1850.
If the function of the introductory clause is simply to introduce, and the function of the second clause (following the colon) is to express a rule, begin that second clause with a capital:
Let us not forget this point: Appositive phrases have an entirely different function than participial phrases and must not be regarded as dangling modifiers.
There is some disagreement among writing reference manuals about when you should capitalize an independent clause following a colon. Most of the manuals advise that when you have more than one sentence in your explanation or when your sentence(s) is a formal quotation, a capital is a good idea. The NYPL Writer's Guide urges consistency within a document; the Chicago Manual of Style says you may begin an independent clause with a lowercase letter unless it's one of those two things (a quotation or more than one sentence). The APA Publication Manual is the most extreme: it advises us to always capitalize an independent clause following a colon. The advice given above is consistent with the Gregg Reference Manual.
We also use a colon after a salutation in a business letter . . .
Dear Senator Dodd:
It has come to our attention that . . . . .
. . . and when we designate the speaker within a play or in court testimony:
BIFF: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.
HAPPY (almost ready to fight Biff): Don't say that!
BIFF: He never knew who he was.
The Semicolon
I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. . . . It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.
__ Lewis Thomas
Use a semicolon [ ; ]
to help sort out a monster list:
There were citizens from Bangor, Maine; Hartford, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and Newport, Rhode Island.
OR
We had four professors on our committee: Peter Wursthorn, Professor of Mathematics; Ronald Pepin, Professor of English; Cynthia Greenblatt, Professor of Education; and Nada Light, Professor of Nursing.
to separate closely related independent clauses:
My grandmother seldom goes to bed this early; she's afraid she'll miss out on something.
The semicolon allows the writer to imply a relationship between nicely balanced ideas without actually stating that relationship. (Instead of saying because my grandmother is afraid she'll miss out on something, we have implied the because. Thus the reader is involved in the development of an idea—a clever, subliminal way of engaging the reader's attention.)
It is rare, but certainly possible, that you will want a semicolon to separate two independent clauses even when those two independent clauses are connected by a coordinating conjunction. This is especially true when the independent clauses are complex or lengthy and when there are commas within those independent clauses. You might consider breaking those two independent clauses into separate sentences when this happens.
Coach Auriemma realized that his next recruiting class contained two superb guards, a fine post player, and a power forward; but as of the end of the spring recruiting season, he was still pushing to discover better first-year players for the interior positions.