Punctuation

Question 1

Full stop

Answer 1

Indicate the end of a sentence

Abbreviations

Question 2

Commas (9)

Answer 2

• Separate adjectives describing a noun
• Separate items in a list
• Mark off words addressing someone
• Natural pause
• Phrase in apposition
• Separate an adverbial subordinate clause from a main clause in a complex sentence
• To mark off or enclose sentence adverbs (e.g. for example , however, therefore)
• To mark off a relative clause
• Parenthesis
• To mark off participial clauses

Question 3

Exclamation marks

Answer 3

Follow exclamations or interjections

Strengthen tone of statement

Question 4

Question marks

Answer 4

Occur at the end of a question

Question 5

Apostrophe

Answer 5

Contractions

Possession

Question 6

Quotation marks (3)

Answer 6

Indicate direct speech
Quote some else’s words
Title of books and films

Question 7

Colon (5)

Answer 7

• Indicate a list
• Introduces a quotation
• Direct speech
• Introduce a conclusion or climax
• To separate two co-ordinate clauses

Question 8

Semi Colon (5)

Answer 8

• To separate items in a list where the items comprise phrases or clauses and where commas have already been used within these phrases or clauses
• To separate two related clauses that are not joined by a conjunction
• To separate two antithetical clauses
• Before a clause beginning with a sentence adverb (so, therefore, however etc.)
• To give emphasis to the final clause of a sentence

Question 9

Hyphen

Answer 9

• To join words together to form either a compound noun or a compound adjective
• Prefix to root word when there are two vowels
• To differentiate between two words that are spelt the same but have different meanings
• To indicate when a word is broken at the end of a line

Question 10

Dash (4)

Answer 10

Dramatic pause
Abrupt change in direction of thought
Introduce climax or anti-climax
Repeated words

Question 11

Underlining (2)

Answer 11

• Used for emphasis

- Used to indicate a title

Question 12

Ellipsis (2)

Answer 12

• Used to indicate the omission of a section of text

- used to show that a text is to be continued or that the readers is to use his or her imagination to compete the story.