A Guide To Learn English Language

I hope you put to prac­tice the rules stated in the pre­vi­ous post where I talked about punc­tu­a­tion marks. Extend­ing for­ward in this post we would look into the most oft used punc­tu­a­tion marks– com­mas, semi colons etc.

Excla­ma­tion Mark

Excla­ma­tion marks are used to show the inten­sity of emo­tions. It is often used in direct speech and infor­mal notes, mes­sages and let­ters. The excla­ma­tion mark is used to express gasps, aston­ish­ment or sur­prise or to empha­size a com­ment or short, sharp phrase. It is less com­mon in for­mal writing.

Exam­ples:

• Great work! Congratulations!
• “Leave me alone!” she screamed

Comma

The com­mas are undoubt­edly the most used excla­ma­tion marks. They help in mak­ing the sen­tence more con­cise.
There are a num­ber of dif­fer­ent uses for com­mas in Eng­lish. Com­mas are used to:

1. Sep­a­rate a list of items. This is one of the most com­mon uses of a comma. Notice that a comma is included before the con­junc­tion ‘and’ which comes before the final ele­ment of a list.
   Exam­ples:
   • I like read­ing, lis­ten­ing to music, tak­ing long walks, and vis­it­ing with my friends.
   • They would like books, mag­a­zines, DVDs, video cas­settes, and other learn­ing mate­ri­als for their library.
2. Sep­a­rate phrases (clauses). This is espe­cially true after a begin­ning depen­dent clause or a long prepo­si­tional phrase.
   Examples:
   • In order to qual­ify for your cer­tifi­cate, you will need to take the TOEFL exam.
   • Although he wanted to come, he wasn’t able to attend the course.
3. Sep­a­rate two inde­pen­dent clauses that are con­nected by a con­junc­tion such as ‘but’.
   Exam­ples:
   • They wanted to pur­chase a new car, but their finan­cial sit­u­a­tion would not allow it.
   • I’d really enjoy see­ing a film this evening, and I’d like to go out for a drink.
4. Intro­duce a direct quote (as opposed to indi­rect speech i.e. He said he wanted to come …).
   Examples:
   • The boy said, “My father is often away dur­ing the week on busi­ness trips.
   • “His doc­tor replied, “If you don’t stop smok­ing, you run the risk of a heart attack.”
5. Sep­a­rate appos­i­tives (a noun, or noun phrase) or non-defining rel­a­tive clauses.
   Exam­ples:
   • Bill Gates, the rich­est man in the world, comes from Seattle.
   • My only sis­ter, who is a fan­tas­tic ten­nis player, is in great shape.
   

   Impor­tance of Colon

Semi Colons

The semi­colon is placed some­where between a weak full stop and a strong comma. To dis­tin­guish between the weak full stop and strong comma you need to apply all the rules stated above in the comma header. Once you are sure about the need of a punc­tu­a­tion mark but none of the comma rules fit into it, then you are look­ing into semi colons. Semi­colons are used to join phrases and sen­tences with­out hav­ing to use con­junc­tion where the join­ing parts are inde­pen­dent by themselves.

Exam­ples:

He loves study­ing; He can’t get enough of school.
What an incred­i­ble sit­u­a­tion; it must make you nervous.

Colons

Colons pre­cede a list, an expla­na­tion or an exam­ple. You do not put a space before a colon, but you do need a space after one. A colon can be used for two purposes:

1. To pro­vide addi­tional details and explanation.

Exam­ples:

• He had many rea­sons for join­ing the club: to get in shape, to make new friends, to lose some weight, and to get out of the house.
• She gave notice for the fol­low­ing rea­sons: bad pay, hor­ri­ble hours, poor rela­tions with col­leagues, and her boss.

2. To intro­duce a direct quote (a comma can also be used in this situation).

Exam­ples:

• He announced to his friends: “I’m get­ting married!”
• She cried out: “I never want to see you again!”

Punc­tu­a­tion means demar­cat­ing points. It means putting proper demar­cat­ing points in the right place to mark the length and mean­ing of sen­tences. Punc­tu­a­tion plays an impor­tant role in writ­ten Eng­lish world. In spo­ken world, pro­nun­ci­a­tion helps in effec­tive communication-making the mean­ing clear through tones. The same role is played by punc­tu­a­tion in writ­ten world. Hence punc­tu­a­tion essen­tially helps in dri­ving home your point of view. Punc­tu­a­tion helps in read­abil­ity by aid­ing in pro­nun­ci­a­tion and mak­ing sen­tences unclut­tered by using proper interjections.

Why is punc­tu­a­tion needed?

To under­stand the need of punc­tu­a­tion let us look at a pas­sage with­out punc­tu­a­tion and let us com­pare it with a pas­sage with punctuation.

“i would like to apply for a job with your com­pany for two years i have been employed as a sales clerk for the jones store i sold noth­ing that i did not take pride in i am sure it will be the same if i work for you”
Let us now look at the above pas­sage in light of punctuation.

“I would like to apply for a job with your com­pany. For two years I have been employed as a sales clerk for the Jones store. I sold noth­ing that I did not take pride in. I am sure it will be the same if I work for you.”

Now let us look at the same pas­sage from the point of view of improper punc­tu­a­tion placing.

Usage of Punc­tu­a­tion Marks

“I would like to apply for a job with your com­pany for two years. I have been employed. As a sales clerk for the Jones store I sold noth­ing. That, I did not take pride in. I am sure it will be the same if I work for you.”

You can see how improper plac­ing of com­mas and full stops alters the mean­ing of sen­tences. So, one should be very care­ful while deal­ing punctuation.

Punc­tu­a­tion Marks

In this arti­cle we would pri­mar­ily look into the two punc­tu­a­tion marks often used in Eng­lish lan­guage namely the period, the ques­tion mark and the cap­i­tal let­ters. We shall see the oth­ers in the next arti­cle includ­ing com­mas and semi colons.

Period

A period is used to com­plete a sen­tence. A sen­tence is a group of words con­tain­ing a sub­ject and pred­i­cate. A sen­tence is a col­lec­tion of words mak­ing com­plete sense. So once you find a group of words mak­ing com­plete sense, you must check whether a period is needed or not. In British Eng­lish a period is called a ‘full stop’.
Exam­ples
He went to Lon­don last week.
He vis­ited his ances­tral home last month.

Ques­tion Marks

A ques­tion mark ends a sen­tence with a ques­tion. Basi­cally when the asker has the inten­tion of ask­ing a ques­tion, the sen­tence ends with a ques­tion mark.

Exam­ples:
Why is it so hot?
He went to Lon­don. Didn’t he?

Cap­i­tal Letters

The cap­i­tal let­ters are used in many places. Refer to the below men­tioned rules to under­stand the usage of cap­i­tal let­ters.
• At the start of a new sen­tence. Exam­ple: The cat sat on the mat. His owner sat nearby.
• For the let­ter “I” when you are refer­ring to your­self. Exam­ple: He can run faster than I can.
• For people’s names. Exam­ples: Mark Spencer.
• For titles. Exam­ples: Dr Jones, Mr Brown
• For book/film/company titles (main words only). Exam­ples: The God­fa­ther
• In direct speech, for the first spo­ken word. Exam­ple: She said, “My name is Mary.“
• For acronyms. Exam­ples: UNICEF
• For titles of days, months. Exam­ples: Mon­day, July
To under­stand and be flu­ent in punc­tu­a­tion please prac­tice the above men­tioned rules. In the next arti­cle we would see the most impor­tant punc­tu­a­tion marks namely comma and semi colon.