PUNCTUATION

Summary of Punctuation Marks
Click on the link for each punctuation mark to find out more.
Punctuation Mark
Name
Example

full stop or period
I like English.

comma
I speak English, French and Thai.

semi-colon
I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis.

colon
You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract.

hyphen
This is a rather out-of-date book.

dash
In each town—London, Paris and Rome—we stayed in youth hostels.

question mark
Where is Shangri-La?

exclamation mark
"Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!"

slash, forward slash or oblique
Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button.

backslash
C:\Users\Files\jse.doc
double quotation marks
"I love you," she said.
single quotation marks
'I love you,' she said.
apostrophe
This is John's car.
underline
Have you read War and Peace?
underscore
bin_lad@cia.gov
round brackets
I went to Bagkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks.
square brackets
The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released.
ellipsis mark
One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen."