Commas, brackets and dashes revision | Exit Quiz | Oak National Academy

Which sentence is punctuated correctly?

• The children were shouting, screaming, whooping, and hollering.

• The children were shouting, screaming, whooping and hollering.

• The children were shouting, screaming whooping, and hollering.

Answer explanation

We use commas to separate items in a list, but we don't use a comma between the last two items - we use 'and'.

Which sentence has the fronted adverbial correctly shown with a comma?

• After a long, time we realised where we were.

• After a long time we realised, where we were.

• After a long time, we realised where we were.

Answer explanation

The fronted adverbial is followed by a comma; the part after the comma must be a complete sentence on its own.

What pieces of punctuation can be used to show parenthesis?

• brackets

• dashes

• colons

• semi-colons

• commas

Answer explanation

Parenthesis is extra information that has been added into a sentence that could be removed without making the sentence 'wrong'.

Which sentences contain parenthesis?

• The mountain - a huge, towering rock - loomed over us.

• My cousin (who lives in Barnsley) is a brave detective.

• Walking into the room, I waved at Jun, who was already sitting down.

Answer explanation

In the other example, we could not remove the section between the commas - the sentence would no longer make sense so it cannot be parenthesis.

Which sentences are correctly punctuated?

• Add a small amount of salt (about a teaspoon) to the mixture.

• Add a small amount (of salt about a teaspoon) to the mixture.

• Wales - which is a country of 3 million people - is next to the Irish Sea.

• Wales which is - a country of 3 million people - is next to the Irish Sea.

Answer explanation

In these cases, we could remove the parenthesis and the sentences would still make sense.

Which parentheses could fill this gap? 'Birmingham - __________ - is England's second-largest city.'

• which is in the West Midlands

• a city in the West Midlands

• the West Midlands

• is England's second-largest

Answer explanation

Remember, this parenthesis could also be demarcated with brackets or commas.