Punctuation marks
Full Stop
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- This is the strongest punctuation mark, making the most definite pause (in reading aloud or silently) when used at the end of a sentence.ra modificar.
- It is used to indicate omitted letters in abbreviations, such as Mon. for Monday or a.m. for ante meridiem (Latin for 'before noon'), and in initials, as in B.K. Smith. Common abbreviations, and those of scientific terms and names of organisations, are now frequently spelled without full stops, e.g. Mr (Mister), Dr (Doctor),DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid),cm (centimetre), UK (United Kingdom).
The comma
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A comma has many uses, including:
a. To separate items in a list:
Jake stole her purse, keys, cheque book and credit cards. There is no need for a comma before the 'and' unless the sense demands it. The comma before the final 'and' is helpful in: The children played cops and robbers, hide and seek, and hopscotch. Some people, especially in the USA, use commas before 'and' even in simple lists as in the Jake stole... example above. Commas can also be used to separate a series of phrases or clauses.
To separate two or more adjectives which individually modify a noun:
He was a small, shy, sickly, red-headed child. There is no comma after the last adjective, and the commas carry the sense of 'and'.
Note how the presence or absence of a comma can change the meaning:
(i) She liked Tony, who played cricket better than John.
(ii) She liked Tony, who played cricket, better than John.
In (i), 'better' refers to 'played cricket',
but in (ii), 'better' refers to 'liked Tony', as the words between commas are now a descriptive aside.
a. To separate items in a list:
Jake stole her purse, keys, cheque book and credit cards. There is no need for a comma before the 'and' unless the sense demands it. The comma before the final 'and' is helpful in: The children played cops and robbers, hide and seek, and hopscotch. Some people, especially in the USA, use commas before 'and' even in simple lists as in the Jake stole... example above. Commas can also be used to separate a series of phrases or clauses.
To separate two or more adjectives which individually modify a noun:
He was a small, shy, sickly, red-headed child. There is no comma after the last adjective, and the commas carry the sense of 'and'.
Note how the presence or absence of a comma can change the meaning:
(i) She liked Tony, who played cricket better than John.
(ii) She liked Tony, who played cricket, better than John.
In (i), 'better' refers to 'played cricket',
but in (ii), 'better' refers to 'liked Tony', as the words between commas are now a descriptive aside.
Semicolons
![Imagen](/uploads/2/4/0/0/24000272/7426960.jpg)
The semicolon is an important but often under-used punctuation mark. It is particularly useful in long, complicated sentences, giving a longer pause than a comma, but not as long as a full stop. There are several major uses:
a. Semicolons can be used instead of commas to separate items in a list, especially where some items are long or contain commas themselves, or to avoid misunderstandings:
At the zoo we saw a brown bear, which was suckling two tiny cubs; a sleepy crocodile; two stick insects, each looking like a dead twig; and five elephants.
Here, having a semicolon, not a comma, after 'cubs' avoids any implication that the bear was suckling all remaining items in the list. A comma is usually sufficient before the last item, but a semicolon here makes clear that the stick insects did not look like five elephants as well as like dead twigs.
To separate clauses which could have been two different sentences, but which are closely related in meaning, and are of similar importance:
It was long past midnight, in a remote part of the forest; she shivered with fear.
a. Semicolons can be used instead of commas to separate items in a list, especially where some items are long or contain commas themselves, or to avoid misunderstandings:
At the zoo we saw a brown bear, which was suckling two tiny cubs; a sleepy crocodile; two stick insects, each looking like a dead twig; and five elephants.
Here, having a semicolon, not a comma, after 'cubs' avoids any implication that the bear was suckling all remaining items in the list. A comma is usually sufficient before the last item, but a semicolon here makes clear that the stick insects did not look like five elephants as well as like dead twigs.
To separate clauses which could have been two different sentences, but which are closely related in meaning, and are of similar importance:
It was long past midnight, in a remote part of the forest; she shivered with fear.
Colon
![Imagen](/uploads/2/4/0/0/24000272/8701135.jpg)
A colon is generally a punctuation mark of introduction, signalling 'look ahead', rather than of separating or stopping things. It is used:
a. To introduce a list:
I suggest the following for promotion: Enid Brown, Peter Scott and John Reid.
Use a colon (without a following dash), not a semicolon, to introduce lists. aquí para modificar.
To introduce direct speech:
He said: "I don't give a damn".
A comma could be used instead of the colon.
To introduce an explanation, expansion or summary of the first part of a sentence:
There were two problems: his small income and her taste for luxury.
a. To introduce a list:
I suggest the following for promotion: Enid Brown, Peter Scott and John Reid.
Use a colon (without a following dash), not a semicolon, to introduce lists. aquí para modificar.
To introduce direct speech:
He said: "I don't give a damn".
A comma could be used instead of the colon.
To introduce an explanation, expansion or summary of the first part of a sentence:
There were two problems: his small income and her taste for luxury.