punctuation marks in English: Definition and Examples

of punctuation marks in English

A punctuation mark is a symbol such as a full stop or period, comma, or question mark that you use to divide written words into sentences and clauses.

Here are 15 common punctuation marks in English.

1.  the full stop(.)
2. Question mark(?)
3. Quotation Marks/Speech Marks (” “)
4. The Apostrophe(‘)
5. The Comma (,)
6. The Hyphen(-)
7. The dash (en dash(–) em dash (—))
8. The Exclamation Mark(!)
9. The colon(:)
10. The semicolon(;)
11. Parentheses()
12. Brackets[]
13. Ellipsis(…)
14. The Slash(/)
15. Sign of Following(:-)

Punctuation Marks with Rules & Examples

01  Full Stop(.)

At the end of a sentence  punctuation marks in English

The main use of full stop is to mark the end of a sentence that is a complete statement. It indicates a long pause before a new sentence begins. (.) का उपयोग वाक्य के अंत में किया जाता है। तथा बोलते वक्त इसमें थोड़ी देर रुकना पड़ता है। इसके बाद ही नए sentence को स्टार्ट किया जाता है।

Interrogative, Opatative and Exclamatary sentences को छोड़कर सभी के साथ last में (.) का प्रयोग किया जाता है।

Example,

• Ram is a good boy.
• come here.
• there was a king.
• pooja has a necklace.
• Namrata Had become a Doctor.
• We are going to market.

2.   After initials and abbreviations

The full stop is also used after the initials and abbreviations. (.) का उपयोग initials and abbreviations के बाद किया जाता है।

Example:-

• B.sc.
• R.T.C.bus
• S.D.O.
• Dec.
• Prof.
• Dr.

3. On websites

it is also used in website addresses, like, ‘www.engishspoken.com’. Websites will not be built and work if you do not put the full stop at the appropriate places in a website address.

the full stop (.) का उपयोग website addresses, like, ‘www.engishspoken.com’. किया जाता है। without it हम कोई भी website address नहीं लिख सकते है।

02 Question mark(?)

What is a Question Mark?

A question mark is the bit of punctuation you add at the end of a question to indicate that you are actually inquiring about something. It looks like this ‘?’ and you add it whenever you ask a question in a bit of writing to show that a question has been asked.

What is a Question?

As the name indicates, this sentence interrogates or asks a question and ends with a question mark. Whilst most interrogative sentences start with question words like “how” or “why,” others are yes/no questions that begin with the helping verbs.

Interrogative sentence एक प्रश्नवाचक वाक्य वह है जो एक सीधा सवाल पूछता है और हमेशा एक प्रश्न चिन्ह में समाप्त होता है। ज्यादातर प्रश्नवाचक वाक्य question words like “how” or “why,” से स्टार्ट होते है। लेकिन दूसरे तरह के helping verbs से स्टार्ट होते है।

1. Where do you live?
2. Where shall we go?
3. Why haven’t you started studying?
4. When did you finish school?
5. Have you forgotten all those things?
6. Did we make a cake for you?

Indirect Questions

Example:-

• He asked me what my profession was.
• I don’t know what type of man he is.

Question tag

a question mark is also used in the Question tag

Example:-

• मेरे पास पैसे हैं, नहीं ?                             I have money, haven’t I?
• पापा के पास कुछ है, है ना ?                    Father has something, hasn’t he?
• उसके पास किताब थी, नहीं क्या ?            He had a book, hadn’t he?
• तुम स्कूल जाते हो, है ना ?                       You go to school, don’t you?

03 Quotation Marks  (“  ”)

This punctuation mark is used when a quote is given or a particular part of written work is represented in original.
Example:
Mahatma Gandhi said “Truth is God”

We use quotation marks (” “) for direct quotations in English.

Examples:

• “I feel I’ve really earned this, ” she said, taking up her mug of tea.
• ” I told a fib about my age, ” little Tom said.
• “It is a historic moment,” he told journalists.
• “Fine, thanks,” he replied in a cheerful manner.

04 Apostrophe (‘)

An apostrophe (‘) is used to show that certain letters have been omitted from a word. The punctuation symbol can also be used to show the possessive form of a noun, in addition to indicating the plural form of lowercase letters.

The apostrophe rules:

(1) apostrophe is used in the contractions form of subject and HP. verb, Helping verbs, and Not 

• I will = I’ll
• Will not  = won’t
• He is = He’s
• I am = I’m
• Do not = Don’t
• They have = They’ve
• It is = It’s
• I would = I’d
• Let us = Let’s
• She has = She’s
• Who is = Who’s

 (2) an apostrophe is used to indicate possession

The apostrophe examples:

• This is Radha’s book
• He joined our company in 2015.
• Men’s wear is costly.

05 The comma (,) punctuation marks in English

This punctuation mark is used when a sentence contains two similar clauses or a compound sentence contains similar sub-sentences. It is used just like its English counterpart.

Some Important rules and examples:

Rule (1) जब दो अलग अलग वाक्यों को एक साथ प्रयोग किया जाये। तो दोनों वाक्यों के बिच में comma का प्रयोग किया जाता है।

Add a comma when two separate sentences are combined

Example: 

1. We purchased some books, and we purchased some pens.

Rule(2) We Use a comma between two or more than two words (many words of the same part of speech)in a series. but, we don’t use a comma between the last two words. एक ही part of speech के कई शब्द एक के बाद एक आये तो अंतिम दो शब्दों को and से जोड़कर बाकि सभी शब्दों के बाद comma का प्रयोग होता है।

Example:

1. Laxmibai, the queen of Jhansi was brave, bold, courageous, and sharp mind.
2. Ram, Mohan, Sohan, Ayansh, and Divyansh are good boys.
3. Dr. Rajendr prasad was intelligent, laborious, honest, and generous.

Rule (3)  Use the comma when answering with the set of the words “yes” and “no”. yes /No question के जवाब में yes /no के बाद comma का प्रयोग किया जाता है।

for Example:

• Do you speak English?
• yes, I do. (Yes, I speak English.)
• Are you going to market?
• No, I am not. (no, I am not going to market.)
• Does she play cricket?
• Yes, She does. ( Yes, She plays cricket.)

Rule(4) We use a comma in the question tag to separate the question from the main clause.

question tag में main clause को अलग करने के लिए भी comma का प्रयोग किया जाता है।

Example:

1. She is your sister, isn’t she?
2. He is busy, isn’t he?
3. You can’t do it, can you?

 

06 The hyphen (-)punctuation marks in English

This punctuation mark is used when there is a comparison with सा, सी (like) or in opposite words pair, analogy, similar word pair, etc.
Examples:

(1) Use a hyphen to join two or more words together into a compound term. Do not separate the words with spaces.

for Examples:

• My eight-year-old boy loves reading.
• I work part-time.
• Self-expression
• Self-confidence
• Self-consciousness
• Nineteenth-century history
• Old-furniture salesman
• Off-the-peg suits
• Self-paced learning exercises

(2) To link prefixes to words.

For example, These things happened before the pre-enlightenment era.

(3) To indicate word breaks

For example: Unlike what some people might think, the twentieth century was very different from other preceding time periods. 

07 Dash

This punctuation mark is used after something is spoken, or written, or to represent a pause after a name in a conversation.

There are two kinds of dashes, the en dash, and the em dash.

En dash (–)

The en dash (–) is slightly wider than the hyphen (-) but narrower than the em dash (—). The typical computer keyboard lacks a dedicated key for the en dash, though most word processors provide a means for its insertion.

Examples

• The 2010⁠–⁠2011 season was our best yet.
• You will find this material in chapters 8⁠–⁠12.
• The professor holds office hours every Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.⁠–⁠1:00 p.m.

Em dash (—)  punctuation marks in English

The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons⁠—in each case to a slightly different effect.

Example:

•  She gave him her answer—No!
• And yet, when the car was finally delivered⁠—nearly three months after it was ordered⁠—she decided she no longer wanted it, leaving the dealer with an oddly equipped car that would be difficult to sell.

08 Exclamation Mark (!)

An exclamation mark is used to show emphasis. It can be used in the middle of a sentence or at the end of a sentence. When used at the end of a sentence, it also takes on the role of a full stop or a period.

This punctuation mark is used just like in English, to express surprise, happiness, anger, sigh, to address someone, etc.
Examples:    punctuation marks in English

• Hey! When did you come?
• Divyansh! Come here.
• Stop!
• Yeah!
• Sit down!
• What a lovely view you have here!
• That’s fantastic!
• Johnny, don’t touch that!
• Help!
• Good heavens!
• Aaarrgh!

09 Colon (:)

A colon (:) is often used when you enumerate a list of persons, things places, etc. it is a fairly common punctuation mark with a varied number of uses. It can be used to introduce a quotation, an example, a series, or even an explanation. Secondly, it can be used to separate two independent clauses. Finally, a colon can be used to show emphasis.

colon (:) का उपयोग ”जैसे की ” के अर्थ में किया जाता है। जब हम person, things places, आदि की list बनाते है तब भी colon का use किया जाता है साथ ही साथ इसका उपयोग इन a quotation, an example, a series, or even an explanation में भी किया जाता है।

Examples: 

• We knew who would win the game: the Eagles
• He wanted to see three cities in Italy: Rome, Florence, and Venice
• Here are three states that begin with M: Michigan, Mississippi, and Maine.
• This house has everything I need: two bedrooms, a backyard, and a garage.
• I have several favorite genres of movies: drama, science fiction, and mystery.

Some more use of Colon (:) 

1. Colon (:) का उपयोग किसी लिस्ट या Example को शुरू करने के लिए किया जाता है।

for Example:

• The following items are required: a pen, pencil, rubber, book, cutter, and inkpot.
• The following candidates have been selected: Ram, Shyam, Mohan, Rajkumar, Sanjay, and Tarun.

2. Direct speech तथा Quotation के पहले colon का उपयोग किया जाता है।

Examples:

• my friends said: “I can’t support you”.
• he said: “Some books are to be chewed and disgusting”.

3. Dialogue में speaker के नाम के बाद colon का उपयोग किया जाता है।

 For Examples:

• Mohan: Hello! How are you?
• Sohan: Hi! I am fine.

4. जब किसी word को define या describe करना हो तो उस Word के बाद भी colon का उपयोग किया जाता है।

Examples:

• Thermometer: an instrument to record the temperature.
• Pen: an instrument to write with.
• Verb: A verb is a doing word.

10 Semicolon (;)

The semicolon is used when two sentences such as compound and mixed sentences are of opposite in nature, this mark shows the importance of a special sentence.
अर्ध विराम का उपयोग यौगिक और मिश्रित वाक्यों के बीच किया जाता है, यह विराम चिह्न किसी विशेष वाक्य पर जोर देने के बीच में, या मुख्य वाक्य के बाद किया जाता है।

The right use of Semicolon(;)

Rule 01.  comma का उपयोग हम sentences में वहा करते है, जहा कम ठहरने की आवश्यकता पड़ती है। तथा full stop का प्रयोग वहां करते है जंहा अधिक ठहरने की आवश्यकता होती है। वंही semi colon का उपयोग वहा करते है जंहा comma से अधिक तथा full stop से कम ठहरने की आवश्यकता होती है।

Rule 02.  ऐसे coordinate clause से पहले जो किसी conjunction से तो न जुड़े हो परन्तु अपना subject रखते हो।

 for Examples:

we lived together; they worked together; we played to gether.

I laughed; I sang.

11 Parentheses ( )

Parenthesis, ( () ) are quotation marks that show additional thoughts about a statement. In many scenarios, they can be replaced by commas without any changes to the meaning of the sentence.

We also often use parentheses to set off less important details.

Example: punctuation marks in English

The two brothers (Richard and Sean) were learning how to play guitar.

12 Brackets [ ]

If the original material includes a noun or pronoun that is unclear, brackets can be used for clarification.

• Was he [the defendant] there when you arrived?

13 Ellipsis (…)  punctuation marks in English

An ellipsis is a set of three periods ( . . . ) indicating an omission. Each period should have a single space on either side, except when adjacent to a quotation mark, in which case there should be no space.

 for Examples:

• To be continued…
• You’ll never believe what I saw…

14 Slash (/)

The slash ( / ), also known as the virgule, has several uses, most of which should be avoided in formal writing. Never use a backslash ( \ ) in place of a slash.

The slash punctuation rules and examples:

(1) Use slashes to separate parts of the internet (web) addresses and file names for some computer programs.

Example:

 http://www.example.com/

(2) Use slashes for fractions

Example:

 1/3 = one-third

1/2 =  Half

(3) Use a slash to separate the day, month, and year in date.

 for Examples:

• w/o = without
• n/a or N/A = not applicable or not available
• R/C = radio control

(4) Use a slash to show the word “per” in measurements.

Example: 80 miles/hour = 80 miles per hour

15  Sign of Following(:-)punctuation marks in English

This punctuation mark is used when further information, details, examples, etc has/have to follow.
Example:
The noun is of three main types:-

Read more

• noun and its kinds
• collective noun
• about to 
• has to and have to
• had to
• Will have to
• Since and for

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