Punctuation marks
Punctuation is the system of symbols (. , ! - : etc) that we use to separate sentences and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Each symbol is called a "punctuation mark.
Summary of Punctuation Marks
Punctuation Mark Name Example full stop or period I like English. comma I speak English, French and Thai. semi-colon I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis. colon You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract. hyphen This is a rather out-of-date book. dash In each town—London, Paris and Rome—we stayed in youth hostels. question mark Where is Shangri-La? exclamation mark
exclamation point (AmE)"Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!" slash, forward slash or oblique Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button. backslash C:\Users\Files\jse.doc double quotation marks "I love you," she said.single quotation marks 'I love you,' she said. apostrophe This is John's car. underline Have you read War and Peace? underscore bin_lad@cia.gov round brackets I went to Bangkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks. square brackets The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released. ellipsis mark One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen."