Punctuation
Using capital letters, commas, apostrophes, speech marks, colons and semicolons correctly to make writing clear.
📌 Key points
- Every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark.
- Use commas to separate items in a list (eggs, milk, bread and butter) and after a fronted adverbial (After lunch, we played).
- Commas, brackets or dashes can mark off extra information: My uncle, who is a pilot, lives in Dubai.
- Apostrophes for contraction show missing letters: do not → don't, it is → it's.
- Apostrophes for possession show belonging: the dog's bone (one dog), the dogs' bones (more than one dog), the children's toys.
- Its (no apostrophe) means “belonging to it”. It's means “it is” or “it has”.
- Speech marks go around the words spoken, with the punctuation inside: “Come here,” said Mum.
- Start a new line each time a new person speaks.
- A colon (:) introduces a list or an explanation. A semicolon (;) joins two closely linked main clauses.
📖 Key words
- Comma
- A mark (,) that separates items in a list or parts of a sentence.
- Apostrophe
- A mark (') that shows missing letters or belonging.
- Speech marks
- Marks (“ ”) around the words someone says; also called inverted commas.
- Colon
- A mark (:) that introduces a list or an explanation.
- Semicolon
- A mark (;) that joins two linked main clauses.
- Parenthesis
- Extra information in brackets, dashes or commas.
✏️ Worked example
Punctuate this sentence: where are you going asked tom
- Find the spoken words: 'where are you going'. Put speech marks around them.
- Spoken words start with a capital letter: “Where are you going”.
- It is a question, so put a question mark inside the speech marks: “Where are you going?”
- 'Tom' is a name, so it needs a capital letter. End the sentence with a full stop.
- Answer: “Where are you going?” asked Tom.
Read the sentence in your head: where you pause, you may need a comma. But never join two full sentences with just a comma.
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