PUNCTUATION MARKS

Punctuation marks on a page are similar to signs on a road. They guide you and direct you. 1. A period ( . ) ends a declarative or imperative sentence. I live in Pasadena. They dont live in Pasadena. Listen to me. Dont drink and drive. Please come here. Eat your vegetables.

2. A question mark ( ? ) ends an interrogative sentence. Do you live in Pasadena? Dont you like chocolate ice cream? 3. An exclamation mark ( ! ) ends an exclamatory sentence (a sentence that contains a lot of emotion). Help! Stop! Dont call me again! 4. A comma ( , ) separates items in a list. I like coffee, soda, milk, and tea. Sara, Maria, Robert and Steven will eat lunch.

5. A semicolon separates equal parts of a sentence. Mary is at home; Bob is at school. Give me a hamburger, with onions and lettuce; a coke, with a straw; and fries, with ketchup. 6. A colon ( : ) usually precedes a list. Bring these things with you: a book, a pencil, and a dictionary. 7. A dash ( ) usually indicates a break in thought. Ill have a hot dog with mustard no, make that ketchup. 8. A hyphen ( - ) separates syllables to make a word easier to read. co-ordinate re-elect pray-er

A hyphen also separates syllables when its necessary to continue a word on the following line. 9. Parentheses ( ) or a pair of dashes contain extra information. John (my brother) is coming to the party. John my brother is coming to the party. 10. An ellipsis (...) shows that information is missing or deleted. To be or not...the question. (To be or not to be. That is the question.) 11. Quotation marks ( ) enclose the exact words of a person. Maria said, Where are the keys? 12. An apostrophe ( ) is a substitute for a letter or letters (in a contraction). isnt = is not sick. = He is sick. cant = cannot dont = do not Ill = I will Im = I am Hes

Bobs rich. = Bob is rich. They have worked. 99 = 1999

Whats new? = What is new? Theyve worked. =

An apostrophe also shows possession. This is Saras book. (Dont say: This is the book of Sara.) dish? 14. Begin all sentences with a capital letter (i.e., capitalize the first word in all sentences) and end all sentences with a punctuation mark. = Capitalize the first word in a sentence and finish the sentence with a punctuation mark. Where is the dogs