Basic Punctuation in English

Period (.)

We use a period (.)

• at the end of a sentence (always)

Hello. My name is Jim. I am a teacher at Gulf Polytechnic in Bahrain. Bahrain is a small island in the Gulf near the coast of Saudi Arabia.

• when we do not write all of a word (often)

Fri. ( = Friday)
Aug. ( = August)
A. Smith (Mr. Smith's first name begins with "A")
e.g. ( = for example; from the Latin exempli gratia)
etc. ( = and all the others; from the Latin et cetera)

Question mark (?)

We use a question mark (?) at the end of a question (but not at the beginning):

Did John find a nice apartment?
Where is Winnipeg?

Notice the question mark includes the period.

Apostrophe (')

We use an apostrophe (')

• for the genitive of nouns (Unit 49)

My brother's name is Matthew.
My brothers' names are Matthew, Edmund and Martin.

• for short forms of words (Unit 6)

Comma (,)

We use a comma (,)

• in a list

In this sentence, My brothers are Matthew, Edmund and Martin, you can understand that I have three brothers.

But in this sentence, My brothers are Matthew Edmund and Martin, I have only two brothers (one is called Matthew Edmund and the other is called Martin).

Notice that there is no comma before and: I bought some oranges, some apples, some peaches and a pear.

• at the beginning and end of some extra information

Matthew, my eldest brother, lives near Athabasca.
Matthew, who lives near Athabasca, is my eldest brother.

• after extra information at the beginning of a sentence

After three months, Matthew found an apartment.
If the weather is good, we can go to the beach.
Finally, I managed to open the door.

But we do not use the comma if we put the extra information at the end of the sentence:

Matthew found an apartment after three months.
We can go to the beach if the weather is good.

• between exact words spoken and the rest of the sentence

"Don't speak to me," he said.
She said, "I don't think you understand."

NEVER use a comma between subject and verb (Matthew, found an apartment) or between the verb and a noun phrase (Matthew found, an apartment).

Quotation marks (" ")

We use quotation marks (" ") to show that the words between them are the exact words spoken - "Just relax," the dentist told me. Notice that they are at the top of the writing (NOT _"Just relax_").

Exclamation mark (!)

We use an exclamation mark (!) to show great surprise or great interest.

Really! That is so strange!

Notice that the exclamation mark includes a period and that it cannot go at the beginning of a sentence (NOT ! Really). We do not use it for any other purpose.

Hyphen (-)

We use a hyphen (-) between two words to show that we must read them as one idea.

a second-hand car
a one-way street

source: wpeau.ca