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 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
