The rules of English punctuation are important in written texts and involve the uses of different punctuation marks (or special symbols) to clarify meaning and separate phrases and sentences. Therefore, we need to understand punctuation to better understand English reading and to produce English writing.
What are the rules of English punctuation?
[Last updated on 21/11/2023]
There are twelve key punctuation marks that are used in English writing. Here is an outline of the different symbols with an explanation and examples of how to use them in English texts.
Capital letters A B C
We use a capital letter to begin a sentence, for the first pronoun I, proper nouns (e.g. specific nouns of places, people, nationalities, days and months.
Example
On Saturday, I spoke to our British manager in London.
Full stop (period American English) .
We use the full stop to end a sentence. They can also be used after abbreviations, where words are shortened
Example
I have a meeting at 3 p.m. to talk about new projects and ideas etc. that we would like to introduce next year.
Question mark
We use a question mark at the end of a sentence (and not a full stop) to indicate that it is a question.
Example
Did you have any business trips last year?
Comma ,
We use commas in a sentence to break the sentence into separate units. This can make the sentence easier to understand, and is similar to how we make slight pauses in English speaking.
Example
In the summer, I went to Spain, Italy, France and Germany.
Apostrophe '
We use an apostrophe when there is a contraction to join words, or with s to indicate possession.
Example
We’re going to have dinner at my colleague’s house on Saturday.
Exclamation mark !
We use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to express excitement, surprise and strong emotions.
Example
I heard that you’ve been promoted. That’s fantastic!
Speech marks (quotation marks American English) " "
We use speech marks to enclose direct speech in writing or to indicate other quoted material.
Example
My colleague asked me “Do you want to meet up for a date on Saturday?” and I still haven’t replied.
Semicolon (or semi-colon) ;
A semi-colon is stronger than a comma, and is used to separate two sentences that are closely linked to each other in meaning.
Example
I’m looking forward to my new position at work; it should have a lot of exciting challenges.
Colon :
A colon is used to show that something is going to follow, such as a list, an explanation or expansion, or between numbers expressing time, ratio or scores.
Example
I work at an international company with offices in five countries: England, Germany, Spain, Japan and South Korea. Earlier today, I emailed colleagues in Berlin about the football match at 8:00 p.m. yesterday evening. England scored 3:0 against Germany!
Hyphen -
A hyphen is used to join words together, typically in compound words such as adjectives and nouns. There are no spaces between the words and the hyphen.
Example
My brother-in-law recommended that we have an up-to-date website.
Brackets (parentheses American English) ( )
Brackets are used to give extra information in the sentence. The sentence can also be understood without the text in the brackets.
Example
I applied for this job (after working for one year in Asia) because it is an international company and has opportunities to travel.
Dash –
A dash is used to separate a piece of information from the rest of the sentence, and can be used as an alternative to brackets. It is longer than a hyphen and some prefer spaces between the words and the dash.
Example
I applied for this job – after working for one year in Asia – because it is an international company and has opportunities to travel.
Ideas to improve English punctuation
Start reading in English
English punctuation exists in English writing. Therefore, the best way to see examples of the rules of English punctuation is to read English texts. Choose a topic that you enjoy, such as the news or sport etc., and you will be exposed to English grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.
Try to do English writing
It’s great to read the rules of English punctuation, but practise is the key to improving your English skills. You can start with simple writing tasks (e.g. emails, postcards) and start putting sentences together. If you are taking an English language course or have a private English teacher, ask for written exercises and they will be able to give feedback and correction. We also have English courses with qualified English trainers in Munich.
Alternatively, you can use your computer or phone and change language settings to English. Then you will get automatically get suggestions, and software programmes like MS Word can help with punctuation as well – but don’t always trust them!
Do you really know the rules of English punctuation?
Here is a punctuation English quiz to start practising!
Read the text and choose the correct punctuation mark for each question.