3rd Class English Capitalization and Punctuation Punctuation

Historical Preview

Origin of question mark.

When early scholars wrote in Latin, the would place the word question- meaning ?question?- at the end of sentence to indicate a query. To conserve valuable space, it was soon shortened to go, which caused another problem- readers might mistake it for the ending of word. So they squashed the letters into symbol: a lowercased q on top of an o. Over time the o shrank to a dot and the q to a squiggle, giving us our current question mark.    

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This lesson will help you to:-

• learn about punctuations.
• understand different types of punctuations.
• examine the usage of punctuations.  

QUICK CONCEPT REVIEW

Learning punctuation is an important skill of acquiring a complete grammatical knowledge. Punctuation is used to was goon create sense, clarity and stress in sentences. It means the right use of putting in Points or Stops in writing. The following are the principal stops:

1. Full Stop or Period (.)
2. Comma (,)
3. Semi colon (;)
4. Colon (:)
5. Note of Interrogation or Question Marks (?)
6. Note of Exclamation or Exclamation Marks (!)
7. Dash (_)
8. Parenthesis ( )
9. Inverted Commas or Quotation Marks (? ?)

Examples:

Full Stops and Commas

Full Stops are used to put an end of a Declarative, Imperative or Negative sentence.

E.g. Ashoka was a great Indian King.

Sit here.

He is not the best person for this job.

A comma informs the reader to pause before continuing the sentence. Unlike a period, the sentence is not over but simply being paused for a moment. E.g. health, wealth and peace go together. I bought bread, butter, eggs and milk from the market.  

QUESTION AND EXCLAMATION MARKS

Like a full stop, a question mark- finishes a sentence. Unlike a full stop, a question mark turns the sentence into a question rather than a statement. E.g. what are you writing in your copy? He said, "Who is there?" An exclamation point also ends a sentence like a full stop, but the sentence is turned into an exclamation rather than a simple statement. Readers should read a sentence with an exclamation mark with excitement. E.g. Bravo! We have won the match. Alas! His dog is dead.  

COLONS AND SEMICOLONS

A semicolon connects two free-standing but related sentences where the conjunction has been left out. Semicolons are typically used before introduction words such as namely, however, therefore, that is, for example or for instance. E.g. God gave her peace: her land reposed. A colon is used before a sentence that expands on the previous one. Colons are often used before listing items. E.g. Shakespeare says: "Sweet is the uses of adversity."  

APOSTROPHES AND PARENTHESES

An apostrophe is used in a contraction in place of the letter that has been removed. "It's" uses an apostrophe to replace the "i" in "is." "It's" is a contraction of "it is." Parentheses are used to enclose clarifying statements. Someone might use parentheses (if they thought it was necessary) to help clarify or expand on a sentence. If parentheses are used in a narrative, the sentence must also make sense if the words in the parentheses were not included.  

DASH

It is used to indicate an abrupt stop or change of thought or to resume a scattered subject. E.g. friends, companions, relatives............all deserted him.  

THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTER

1.  The first word of every sentence. Example: The moon shines at night.

2. Proper Noun. Examples:

(a) Names of persons: I like Rajan.

(b) Names of Places: Koran lives in Lucknow. 

(c) Names of Countries: India is great.

(d). Names of Rivers: The Ganga is a holy river.

Amazing Facts

Backlash is not a form of punctuation. There are fourteen forms of punctuation in the English language.  

3. Words like God. I

4. The first word of every line of poetry. Example: Two little Dicky birds Sitting on a wall, One named Peter, one named Paul, Fly away Peter, fly away Paul, Come back Peter, come back Paul.

5. The first word of a sentence put within the inverted Example: She said, "India is our motherland." Punctuation is very important in sentence structure. It is a series of symbols used in the middle and at the end of a sentence. It can help determine what type of sentence it is and how to respond. Many sentences con mean very different things without punctuation. Some symbols can be confusing. It can help to improve your grammar by learning how to use these symbols.