Punctuation

Punctuation refers to the marks used in writing that help clarify meaning and separate linguistic units. Common punctuation marks include periods, commas, question marks, and quotation marks.

A period is used to indicate the end of a declarative sentence or statement.

A comma is used to separate items in a list, before conjunctions in compound sentences, and after introductory phrases or clauses.

A question mark (?) is used at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is a question.

'Their' is a possessive pronoun, 'there' refers to a place, and 'they're' is a contraction of 'they are'.

Direct quotes should be enclosed in quotation marks, and punctuation marks should be placed inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material.

In the sentence 'I wanted to go for a walk, but it started to rain,' the comma is used before the conjunction 'but'.

An exclamation mark is used to express strong emotion or emphasis at the end of a sentence.

A comma is often used to indicate a pause in a sentence.

A semicolon (;) is used to connect closely related independent clauses or to separate items in a complex list.