Punctuation Flashcards
Full stop
Marks the end of a sentence.
Question mark
Indicates a direct question.
Exclamation mark
To emphasise or to give the element of surprise.
Commas
To separate items in a list.
What does two commas do?
Are used to enclose extra information.
Parenthesis
To separate phrases or clauses in a sentence. To introduce a list or an example.
Dashes
To show an abrupt change of thought or interruption in a sentence.
What can two dashes function as?
Parenthesis used to enclose extra information.
What else can dashes show?
To show hesitation
Initialism
Letter of the abbreviation are individually pronounced.
Acronym
Pronounced as a single word.
Contractions
Some letters are omitted to make the word shorter.
Give an example of an initialism
UK, USA, ATM, CEO, FYI.
Give an example of an acronym
NASA, NATO, UNICEF, LAN, scuba, laser.
Give an example of a contraction
Mr. , Dr. , Jr. , Sr. , Ltd. , Sgt..
Indirect (Reported) Speech
The actual words spoken are retold by someone else to another person.
How do you indicate direct speech?
Words are in in inverted commas.
Each new speaker starts a new paragraph.
Hyphen
Joins two or more words to form a compound word.
What are the other functions of a hyphen?
That a word is continued on the following line.
Ellipsis
When used in the middle of a sentence may indicate that a word(s) is missing.
Direct Speech
This is the exact words that are said.
What are the other functions of an ellipsis?
A dramatic pause (to show anti-climax). Used for readers to finish the thought or use their own imaginations. Introduce a quote.
Semi-colon
To link two simple sentences.
(Stands in the place of a conjunction.)
What are the other functions of a semi-colon?
To punctuate lists where individual items already require the use of a comma.
Colon
To indicate that a list or an example follows.
What are the other functions of a colon?
To indicate a quote from a book.
What does an apostrophe indicate?
Contraction, possession.
Contraction
Indicates that letters are missing.
Give an example of a contraction
can’t.
Possession
Indicates what belongs to whom.
Give an example of a possession statement
The children’s toys.
What is special about Possessive pronouns?
Never take an apostrophe.
What is another word for brackets?
Parenthesis.
How do you indicate names of whole pieces, such as novels, plays, anthologies, films?
By underlining them.
How do you indicate names of part of a whole, such as short stories and poems?
With inverted commas.
Abbreviations
Ia a shorthanded form of a word or phrase.
e.g. SU ,USA
