Basic Rules of Punctuation in English Oficina 18/09
Núcleo de Apoio à Aprendizagem (LAPREN) Parte integrante do Centro de Apoio Discente Contato: [email protected] | [email protected]
1. COMMA
▪ Separating words and word groups in a simple series of three or more items: ‘Shaggy made himself a sandwich with ham, lettuce, cheese, and sauce.’
▪ Separating two adjectives when their order is interchangeable: ‘Shaggy is a skinny, tall guy.’
▪ After the first clause in sentences where two independent clauses are joined by connectors such as and, or, but, etc: ‘Shaggy finished his sandwich, and then went home.’
▪ Adding information mid-sentence: ‘Scooby-doo, who is Shaggy’s best friend, is a dog.’
▪ After certain words that introduce a sentence, such as well, yes, why, hello, hey, etc: ‘Well, hello, Scooby-doo!’
▪ Setting off expressions that interrupt the sentence flow, such as nevertheless, by the way, after all, on the other hand, however, etc: ‘Shaggy and Scooby are, by the way, always hungry.’
▪ Setting off names, nicknames, terms of endearment, or titles of a person being directly addressed: ‘Shaggy, my friend, how are you?’
▪ Separating the day of the month from the year. If you want to add something after the date, a comma must go after the year as well: ‘The first Scooby-doo episode aired on September 13, 1969 (, on the CBS Network).’
▪ Separating a city from its state: ‘Crystal Cove, California, is the name of a state park in the US. In the Scooby- Doo TV series, it's the name of the small town from where Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Scooby come.’
▪ Introducing or interrupting direct quotations: ‘Shaggy called, “Scooby-doo, where are you?”’ “Scooby-doo,” Shaggy called, “where are you?”’
▪ Do NOT use a comma to separate the subject from the verb. Those two structures must not be separated. INCORRECT: ‘Scooby, is a very nice dog.’ ‘Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Shaggy, are all Scooby’s friends.’
▪ Do NOT use a comma between a comparison. INCORRECT: ‘Velma is smarter, than Scooby.’
▪ Do NOT use a comma before ‘BUT’ unless it is joining two independent clauses. INCORRECT: ‘Velma is strict, but nice.’ CORRECT: ‘Velma is a good friend, but she’s an even better detective.’
▪ Do NOT separate a verb and its object. INCORRECT: ‘Shaggy said, he likes food.’
2. COLON
▪ Introduce an item or a series of items: ‘There is one thing the girls are particularly good at: fighting.’ ‘There are three PowerPuff girls: Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.’
OR
‘There are three PowerPuff girls: a. Blossom b. Bubbles c. Buttercup.’
▪ Introduce a sentence which explains or adds information to the previous sentence: ‘The PowerPuff Girls really are the bravest kids in their town: they confront monsters like it’s nothing and are never afraid of them.’
▪ A colon can also be used to address someone in a business letter or email; that is, it can be used in formal salutations. If the PowerPuff Girls were to write an email or a letter to the mayor, for example, they would probably write,
‘Dear Mr Mayor:’
▪ USE CAPITAL LETTERS IF: The colon introduces a complete or full-sentence quotation: ‘Bubbles exclaimed after a while: “I’m really tired of fighting!”’
The information following the colon requires two or more complete sentences: ‘The girls’ dad allows them to fight to save the world as long as they respect three basic rules: Be just. Never skip school. Always show up for dinner on time.’
3. SEMICOLON
A semicolon is most commonly used to link two independent clauses that are closely related in thought. Independent clauses are sentences that exist in full meaning on their own, and the semicolon that joins them tells us that they contain ideas of an equal position. It CANNOT be used interchangeably with commas and colons.
▪ An example of a semicolon joining two independent clauses: ‘Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are arguing over the hunting season. Bugs Bunny wants it to be duck season; Daffy Duck would prefer it to be rabbit season.’
▪ A semicolon can also be used between items in a list or series if one of the items contains commas. For example: Bugs Bunny has had a lot of occupations: he has been a private detective, which paid very well; he has also been a hairdresser, a babysitter, and an actor.
▪ Finally, semicolons can replace a conjunction (and, but, or) that is joining two independent clauses. For example: Original: ‘I saw Daffy Duck, and he was relaxing in the pool.’ With the semicolon: ‘I saw Daffy Duck; he was relaxing in the pool.’
▪ Be careful not to use a comma when a semicolon is needed. A comma should NOT be used to connect independent clauses if there is no coordinating conjunction (FOR, AND, NOR, BUT, YET, or SO). INCORRECT: ‘Bugs Bunny is clever, he is also very playful.’ CORRECT: ‘Bugs Bunny is clever; he is also very playful.’ OR ‘Bugs Bunny is clever, and he is also very playful.’
▪ Similarly, avoid using a semicolon when a comma is needed. For example: INCORRECT: ‘Because Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck have different personalities; they don't get along very well.’ CORRECT: ‘Because Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck have different personalities, they don't get along very well.’
4. QUOTATION MARKS
▪ QUOTING (text or speech): You quote something or someone when you want to use another person's words in your writing. If you are quoting a full sentence, you should start the quote with a capital letter, even if it's in the middle of the sentence; if you're quoting only a fragment, a capital letter is not used. Similarly, if you split a quoted sentence, the second part does not take a capital letter.
AMERICAN: Donald said, “This looks like a pretty good story.’ “This,” Donald began, “looks like a pretty good story.” Donald said it looked like a “pretty good” story.
BRITISH: Donald said, ‘This looks like a pretty good story’. ‘This,’ Donald began, ‘looks like a pretty good story.’ Donald said it looked like a ‘pretty good’ story.
▪ QUOTES WITHIN A QUOTE: Sometimes, the quote you want to use already has quotation marks. In this case, you are going to use a second type of quotation mark.
For example: I met Huey, Dewey, and Louie and they told me, ‘We’ve just been to our Uncle Donald’s house! He greeted us saying, “Happy Halloween, boys!”’ (BRITISH)
I met Huey, Dewey, and Louie and they told me, “We’ve just been to our Uncle Donald’s house! He greeted us saying, ‘Happy Halloween, boys!’” (AMERICAN)
▪ Sometimes, quotation marks are also used to talk about words as words. For example: “Embrace”/’Embrace’ means to hold someone in your arms. Here, the quotation marks show that you’re talking about the word itself, not the action of inhaling.
5. THE DASH
A dash is a little horizontal line that floats in the middle of a line of texts. It's longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. The most common types of dashes are the en dash (–) and the em dash (—). A good way to remember the difference between these two dashes is to visualise the en dash as the length of the letter N and the em dash as the length of the letter M.
▪ EM DASHES ( — ) Em dashes are used when other punctuation would be awkward. They can, for example, replace parentheses at the end of a sentence or introduce a phrase where multiple commas are used:
‘After tasting the food, Snoopy showed his reproval (he, in fact, winced at it).’ After tasting the food, Snoopy showed his reproval—he, in fact, winced at it.
▪ Em dashes may also be used to introduce an idea that emphasises something said in the first part of the sentence, like colons. Whilst colons are more formal than dashes, dashes are more empathic. This is commonly used to create strong emotion in writing. Examples:
‘Snoopy isn’t just a dog: he’s also a wizard.’ Snoopy isn’t just a dog—he’s also a wizard.
▪ EN DASHES ( – ) The en dash is slightly smaller than the em dash and is used to indicate spans of time or ranges of numbers. In this context, it should be interpreted/read as meaning either 'to' or 'through'. Examples:
Snoopy read pages 1–50 in a very short time. Snoopy sat in the library reading from 1:00–4:00pm, so he managed to finish the book.
ACTIVITY
1. I’m sorry! Fred screamed. Stop hitting me! Wilma didn’t forgive him she was extremely mad.
2. Spongebob is not very clever but he is a nice guy. He is also yellow short and square-shaped. He didn’t really care about what his friend said in fact he mocked him.
3. The Looney Tunes are upset because their teacher told them to read pages 10 to 30 for next class. They will probably have to spend about 2 to 3 hours studying.
4. Tom and Jerry hate each other don’t they? Not really they can get on really well sometimes.
5. Tweety always says oh I think I saw a pussy cat. Sylvester is always trying to eat Tweety but Tweety is smarter than him he always manages to escape.
Answer Key: • ‘I’m sorry!’ Fred screamed. ‘Stop hitting me!’ Wilma didn’t forgive him; she was extremely mad.
• Spongebob is not very clever, but he is a nice guy. He is also yellow, short, and square- shaped. He didn’t really care about what his friend said ; OR — in fact, he mocked him.
• The Looney Tunes are upset because their teacher told them to read pages 10–30 for next class. They will probably have to spend about 2–3 hours studying.
• Tom and Jerry hate each other, don’t they? Not really: they can get on really well sometimes.
• Tweety always says, ‘Oh, I think I saw a pussy cat.’ Sylvester is always trying to eat Tweety, but Tweety is smarter than him: he always manages to escape.