← 💬 English as a Second Language
Punctuation and capital letters
Using capital letters, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas and apostrophes correctly.
📌 Key points
- Start every sentence with a capital letter.
- Use capital letters for I, names of people and places (Lina, Erbil, Iraq), days (Monday), months (March), languages and nationalities (English, Kurdish).
- Do not use capitals for seasons (spring, winter) or ordinary nouns in the middle of a sentence.
- End a sentence with a full stop (.), a question mark (?) for questions, or an exclamation mark (!) for strong feelings.
- Use commas in lists: I like apples, bananas and grapes.
- Use a comma after Yes or No at the start of an answer: Yes, I'd love to.
- Apostrophes show missing letters (I'm, can't, it's) or belonging (Ali's bag).
- In an email or letter, put a comma after the greeting (Dear Tom, / Hi Mia,) and after the closing (Best wishes,).
📖 Key words
- Capital letter
- A big letter, e.g. A, B, C.
- Full stop
- The mark (.) at the end of a sentence.
- Question mark
- The mark (?) at the end of a question.
- Exclamation mark
- The mark (!) for strong feelings or surprise.
- Comma
- The mark (,) used in lists and to separate parts of a sentence.
- Apostrophe
- The mark (') for missing letters or belonging.
✏️ Worked example
Correct this sentence: 'on saturday i went to the park with my friend sara'
- The sentence starts with 'on', so it needs a capital: On.
- 'Saturday' is a day, so it needs a capital S.
- 'I' on its own is always a capital letter.
- 'Sara' is a name, so it needs a capital S. End the sentence with a full stop.
- Answer: On Saturday I went to the park with my friend Sara.
After you write, check every sentence for three things: a capital letter at the start, capitals for names, and a mark at the end.
Test yourself8 questions from a bank of 21. A new mix every time.
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