Punctuation

We use capital letters to mark the beginning of a sentence and we use full stops to mark the end of a sentence:

We went to France last summer.We were really surprised that it was so easy to travel on the motorways.

The Football World Cup takes place every four years.The next World Cup will be held in South Africa.In 2006 it was held in Germany.

We also use capital letters at the beginning of proper nouns. Proper nouns include personal names (including titles before names), nationalities and languages, days of the week and months of the year, public holidays as well as geographical places:

DrDavidJames is the consultant atLeedsCityHospital.

They are planning a long holiday inNewZealand.

Can she speakJapanese?

The next meeting of the group will take place onThursday.

What plans do you have forChineseNewYear?

We use capital letters for the titles of books, magazines and newspapers, plays and music:

‘Oliver’ is a musical based on the novel ‘OliverTwist’ by Charles Dickens.

TheStraitsTimes is a daily English language newspaper in Singapore.

They are performing Beethoven’sSixthSymphony.

In addition to closing sentences, we also use full stops in initials for personal names:

G. W. Dwyer

David A. Johnston, Accountant

Full stops are also used after abbreviations, although this practice is becoming less common:

We use question marks to make clear that what is said is a question. When we use a question mark, we do not use a full stop:

Why do they make so many mistakes?

A:

So you’re Harry’s cousin?

B:

Yes. That’s right.

We useexclamation marks to indicate an exclamative clause or expression in informal writing. When we want to emphasise something in informal writing, we sometimes use more than one exclamation mark:

Listen!

Oh no!!!Please don’t ask me to phone her. She’ll talk for hours!!!

We use commas to separate a list of similar words or phrases:

It’s important to write in clear, simple, accurate words.

They were more friendly, more talkative, more open than last time we met them.

We do not normally use a comma beforeandat the end of a list of single words:

They travelled through Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

American English does use a comma in lists beforeand:

We took bread, cheese, and fruit with us.

We use commas to separate words or phrases that mark where the voice would pause slightly:

I can’t tell you now. However, all will be revealed tomorrow at midday.

We had, in fact, lost all of our money.

James, our guide, will accompany you on the boat across to the island.

We use colons to introduce lists:

There are three main reasons for the success of the government: economic, social and political.

We also use colons to indicate a subtitle or to indicate a subdivision of a topic:

Life in Provence:A Personal View

We often use colons to introduce direct speech:

Then he said:‘I really cannot help you in any way.’

We commonly use a colon between sentences when the second sentence explains or justifies the first sentence:

Try to keep your flat clean and tidy:it will sell more easily.

We use semi-colons instead of full stops to separate two main clauses. In such cases, the clauses are related in meaning but are separated grammatically:

Spanish is spoken throughout South America; in Brazil the main language is Portuguese.

Semi-colons are not commonly used in contemporary English. Full stops and commas are more common.

Quotation marks in English are ‘…’ or “…”. In direct speech, we enclose what is said within a pair of single or double quotation marks, although single quotation marks are becoming more common. Direct speech begins with a capital letter and can be preceded by a comma or a colon:

She said,“Where can we find a nice Indian restaurant?”(orShe said: ‘Where can we find a nice Indian restaurant?’)

We can put the reporting clause in three different positions. Note the position of commas and full stops here:

The fitness trainer said, ‘Don’t try to do too much when you begin.’(quotation mark after comma introducing speech and after full stop)

‘Don’t try to do too much when you begin,’the fitness trainer said.(comma before closing quotation mark)

‘Don’t try to do too much,’the fitness trainer said, ‘when you begin.’(commas separating the reporting clause)

When we use direct speech inside direct speech, we use either single quotation marks inside double quotation marks, or double quotation marks inside single quotation marks:

“It was getting really cold,”he said,“and they were saying‘When can we go back home?’”

Jaya said,‘They were getting really excited and were shouting“Come on!”’.

We commonly use question marks inside the quotation marks unless the question is part of the reporting clause:

‘Why don’t they know who is responsible?’ they asked.

So did they really say ‘We will win every match for the next three weeks’?

We also use single quotation marks to draw attention to a word. We can use quotation marks in this way when we want to question the exact meaning of the word:

I am very disappointed by his‘apology’. I don’t think he meant it at all.

NEW‘WAR’OVER NORTH SEA FISHING PLANS

We sometimes use quotation marks to refer to the titles of books, newspapers, magazines, films, songs, poems, videos, CDs, etc:

There’s a special report all about it in‘The Daily Mail’.

We can use italics instead of quotation marks for these citations:

There’s a special report all about it in The Daily Mail.

Dashes are more common in informal writing. They can be used in similar ways to commas or semi-colons. Both single and multiple dashes may be used:

Our teacher–who often gets cross when we’re late–wasn’t cross at all. No one could believe it!

Just wanted to thank you for a lovely evening–we really enjoyed it.

Brackets have a similar function to dashes. They often add extra, non-essential information:

Thriplow(pronounced ‘Triplow’)is a small village in the eastern part of England.

We use brackets around dates and page numbers in academic writing:

Heaton(1978)gives a convincing explanation of how hurricanes are formed(pages 27–32).

We often use forward slashes in internet addresses and to indicateand/orin academic references:

You can find the figures you need on www.bbc.co.uk/finance

Binks (1995/1997) has already researched this aspect of Roman history.

In British English the date is usually given in the order day, month, year.

We use full stops in dates. Forward slashes or dashes are also commonly used:

Date of birth: 1.8.1985(or1/8/1985or1–8–1985)

In American English the day and the month are in a different order so that 8 January 1985 is written as follows:

1–8–1985(or1/8/1985or1.8.1985)

We don’t usually punctuate weights and measures and references to numbers:

4kg (4 kilograms)10m (10 metres) 5m dollars(5 million dollars)

Commas are used in numbers to indicate units of thousands and millions:

7,980(seven thousand, nine hundred and eighty)

11,487,562(eleven million, four hundred and eighty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixty-two)

We use full stops, not commas, to indicate decimal points:

6.5(six point five)

Not:6,5

We can punctuate times with full stops or colons:

The shop opens at 9.30.(or 9:30)