Introduction to 'Punctuation' & Capital letters

 Punctuation & Capital letters

When we speak, we do not go on speaking continuously and in the same tone.. We pause while speaking.Some of the pauses are short while some are pretty long. We lend a particular quality of voice to the same words to convey a particular meaning. Marks of  punctuation perform the same function as pauses and stress perform in speech.

There are many punctuatuion marks.

The main marks of punctuation are:                

1. Full stop

2.comma

3. semicolon

4. Mark of interrogation

5. Mark of exclamation

6. Apostrophe

7.colon

8.Quotation marks or inverted commas

The Full Stop (.)

1. It is used to close a statement or a command:

Carrots are a good source of vitamin  A. ( statement)

Bring one kg. carrots from the market..( command)

2. used after initials or abbreviations:

    P.M- Prime Minister

    Mr. R.K John-  Mister Roni  Kumar John

* In modern English, full stops are often omitted in abbreviations. U.S.A & USA are both acceptable.

* In Mr. , Mrs., Dr., full stops can be omitted.

3. Also used to indicate a decimal fraction: 34.5,    86.4 etc

The comma  (,)

It is the shortest pause. It is used -

1. to separate words in series:

  I bought fruits, vegetables, groceries and some books from the market.

2. to separate phrases in series:

  Standing or sitting, eating or drinking, sleeping or walking, she always thinks of her past.

3.to set off a noun of address:

  Father, will you take me on a long drive?

4.to separate question tags:

  He was absent, wasn't he?

5. to separate expressions like 'thank you' , 'yes' ,''well' etc.

    Yes , I will accompany you.

6. to separate a reported speech from the rest of the sentence:

   He said, " We are going out of station."

 7.to separate expressions that are in apposition:

  Mr. R.D. Tandon, the Chief Minister, was the chief guest.

8 used whenever a brief pause is needed to give greater clarity to our writing:

  She is , as far as  I know, a very reliable person.

9.used to separate the parts of a date from one another or any words following the date:

     June 29, 2021

   On  October 10, we  shifted to our new house.

The semicolon (;)

 The semicolon is stronger than a common but weaker than a full stop.

  1.It is used after a statement which introduces examples:

     India has several large cities:  Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai etc.

The mark of  interrogation (?)

 It  is placed  at the end  of an interrogative  sentence:

  Who is your best friend?

The apostrophe (')

  It is used:

1. to form the possessive of any singular noun,  we add an apostrophe and ' s' to the noun:

  the boy's  pen ,     Robert's new bike  etc.

2.to form the possessive of a plural noun ending in 's', we add only an apostrophe:

  the girls' hostel. a ladies' tailor etc.

3. to make short forms:

 I'll ( I will),  doesn't ( does not) etc.

4.to form the plurals of letters, figures, etc.:

 two 5's,  three B.A's  etc.

5.to form the possessive of a plural noun , not ending in 's', we add an apostrophe and 's':

   children's school,  men's clothes etc.

The quotation marks or inverted commas( "      ")

They are used  to set off the actual words spoken by a person:

  Gini said, " I want to become a doctor."

The mark of exclamation(!)

It is placed at the end of an exclamatory sentence:

What an excellent idea!

How wonderful !

Capital letters with proper nouns

 Capitalise:

a) names of persons: Indira Gandhi 

b) names of the days of the week and months:   Sunday,  June etc.

c) names of the religions, festivals, religious books:  Islam, the Bible, Diwali etc

d) the names of countries, nationalities, races,languages etc.: Japan, Nepalese, Telugu, the Germans etc.

e) the names of schools, colleges, business houses, political parties etc.: Delhi Public School, St. Stephen's College, Reliance Industries,Indian National Congress etc.

f) the names of buildings, trains, brand names: The Eiffel Tower, The Rajdhani Express, Lux etc.

g) the names of special days, events etc.: the Republic Day, Quit India Movement etc.

h) the first word of each line of a poem often begins with a capital letter:

The sweetest thing that ever grow

Beside a human being!

i) the first word of a direct quotation:  She said, " My uncle is a pilot."

j) while writing the titles of stories, we capitalise,  the  first word ,all the other words except articles, prepositions and conjunctions:

The  Advantage of Rising Early

k) The official names of government departments, the titles of high- ranking officials. etc.

 The Prime Minister, The Ministry of Finance etc.

l)   the pronoun' I' and all the words standing for God:

 the Almighty, the blessings of God etc.

Learning punctuation in detail:

part-1

part-2