PUNCTUATION MARKS

APOSTROPHE

1. Apostrophe Apostrophes are used in three different ways:i. in possessive nounsii. in contractionsiii. to make letters, signs, symbols, and numbers pluralPossessive Nouns.“To possess” means “to own.” So possessive nouns

show ownership.A. Singular Possessive Nouns. Add ‘s to make any singular noun Possessive.e.g. The bird’s wings were green and blue. Monica’s hat blew across the street.

B. Plural Possessive Nouns.

If the last letter of a plural noun is s, just add an apostrophe to make the noun possessive.

If the last letter of a plural noun is not s, add ‘s to make the noun possessive.

Plural nouns that Possessive forms

end with the letter s (add just an apostrophe)

babies babies’

teachers teaches’

girls girls’

Plural nouns that don’t Plural possessive forms

end with the letter s (add ‘s)

children children’s

geese geese’s

men men’s

Contractions.

Use an apostrophe in a contraction to show where the missing letter or letters used to be.

“To contract means to shorten.” The two words being contracted are usually

a pronoun + a verb (I + will= I’ll) or

a verb + “not” (did + not= didn’t).

common contractions.

can’t=cannot she’ ll=she will

doesn’t=does not we’d=we would/had

he’s=he is we’re=we are

I’d=I would/had we’ve=we have

mightn’t=might not would’ve=would have

needn’t=need not you’re=you are

Use apostrophe to make letters, numbers, symbols

signs, and punctuation marks plural.

Sometimes when you are writing, you have to make something plural that isn’t a word.

Add ‘s to make a letter plural.

e.g.

Your a’s look just like your u’s because you don’t close the tops.

Her handwriting is weird. She dots her e’s and crosses her b’s.

Add ‘s or just s to make a number or a decade plural.

with an apostrophe:

e.g. In the late 1960’s, American astronauts went to the moon.

Does your phone number have 4’s or three?

without an apostrophe:

In the late 1990s, people looked forward to the twenty-first century.

Please cut out more 6s for the math bulletin board.

Add ‘s to make a symbol, sign, or punctuation mark plural.

There are too many #’s, &’s, and !’s on this poster.

The math teacher says I make my =‘s crooked.

CAPITAL LETTERS

2. Capital letters. Capitalize the first word in a sentence. The bunny ate too much, got dizzy, and fell off

the sofa. Capitalize the pronoun ‘I’. He had the nerve to say that I sang off key-I,

who took singing lessons with Madame Margo for five years!

Capitalize proper nouns. Roslyn Penn Columbia Prep School Rocky Mountains Capitalize proper adjectives. Proper adjectives come from proper nouns.

Proper Noun Proper Adjective

America American

Boston Bostonian

Florida Floridian

Nigeria Nigerian

Norway Norwegian

Capitalize important titles, even if the person’s name is not mentioned.

The President of United States went to the circus.

The Prime Minister forgot his hat at the conference.

Capitalize abbreviation of titles after someone’s name.

Martin Luther King, Jr

Esther Brill, Ph.D.

John Ken, M.D

Capitalize the days of the week and month of the year.

Monday, Sunday, Friday, etc.

January, April,may etc.

Capitalize the first word in every line of poetry.

Birds, birds everywhere,

In the trees and in my hair;

Birds are fowl, but some are fair;

A bird is sitting in my chair!

COLONS

3. Colons. ( A colon looks like two periods, one on top of

the other. Use a colon between the chapter and verse

numbers when referring to the parts of the Bible. Genesis 1:7 (These refers to the book of

Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 7). Luke 3:15 Psalms 22:17 Use a colon after the greetings (salutation) to a

formal or business letter. Dear Board of Directors: Dear Editor: Dear Madam: Gentlemen: To Whom it May Concern: Dear Sirs:

Capitalize the names of languages.

French Spanish Latin

Capitalize the names of all the planets in solar system, including Earth (but not sun and moon).

Jupiter, the largest planet, has many moons.

There is more water than earth on the planet Earth, so our planet should be named Ocean.

Use a colon after headings in a memo.

To: Lanre

From: John

Date: July 19, 2000

Use a colon to separate the hours from the minutes when you write the time of day.

2:17a.m 8:05p.m

6:19p.m

Use a colon to separate a heading or an introductory label from the words that follow it.

HEADLINE: Man falls Into Eyeglass Machine, Makes Spectacle of himself.

COMMAS

4. Commas. (,)

Put a comma between independent clauses of equal value when there are three or more, and they don’t have commas in them.

Katie bought the food, Tommy cooked the meal, and Essie washed the dishes.

Put a comma after the close of any letter (personal or business, friendly or not).

Sincerely yours, Love,

Best regards, Warmest wishes,

Put a comma after the greeting of a personal letter.

Dear Aunt Paula, Hi, Max,

Put a comma to avoid confusion (by making the reader pause slightly).

Shortly after, the carnival shut down.

Miriam rolled on, on her new roller skates.

Use commas to set off appositives.

An appositive is a noun that comes after another noun(or noun phrase) and gives additional information about it. An appositive can come in the middle or end of a sentence.

e.g.

Dr. William, the headmaster of our school, never shouts.

One person who never shouts is Dr. William, the headmaster of our school.

noun appositive

noun

appositive

Use commas to set off expressions or words that brake the flow of thought at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence.

Well, I didn’t realize he was seven feet tall when I said I would go out on a date with him.

At that time, however, the goat still lived in the house.

EXCLAMATION POINTS

5. Exclamation points. (!)

Exclamation points are sometimes called exclamation marks.

Use an exclamation point at the end of an exclamatory sentence that is full of strong feelings (like joy, fear, anger or surprise).

She loves me! She loves me! Who is she?

I’m going to be a banana in a television commercial!

Put an exclamation point after a strong interjection at the beginning of a sentence.

Yicks! The pickle truck turned over in the middle of town.

HYPHENS

6. Hyphens. (-) A hyphen is a short, horizontal line.

Use a hyphen to connect parts of some compound nouns.

son-in-law

self-awareness

tractor-trailer

Use a hyphen with –elect.

Mayor-elect,

Governor-elect,

President elect.

Put a hyphen in a compound word between a prefix and a proper noun or an adjective.

mid-July festival

pro-Middle East peace

Use a hyphen to join the parts of a fractions when it is written out as words.

two-fifths

three-sixteenths

five-eights

Use hyphens when you spell out a word for emphasis.

I want this filthy, that’s f-i-l-t-h-y, room cleaned up immediately!

When I say no, I mean no! N-o.No!

Put hyphen after some prefixes like ex-,self-, and all-,expecially if the last letter of the prefix is the same as the first letter of the word it’s connected to.

anti-inflammatory ex-mayor

re-elect pro-feminist

all-loving

PERIODS

7. Periods. (.) Put periods at the end of a sentence that states

a fact, makes a comment, or expresses an opinion.

Tuesday is the best day because I eat lunch early.

A guppy is a little fish, but it can have hundreds of babies.

Put a period at the end of a mild command or a request.

Please stop doing that.

Will you pass the peas, please.

Put a period after abbreviations.

Ms. Diana,

Mrs. Addison, Powell, Capt. (captain) Lew Dr. Sherman, Gen.(General) 44 B.C.(or B.C.E) Smith & Co. (company) the science dept, (department) Put a period after initials in people’s names. Susan B. Anthony E.B. White Michall J. Fox

QUESTION MARKS

8. Question marks. (?)

Put a question mark at the end of a direct question.

Is your name Miss Kleiman?

How many miles are there in a light-year?

What is your father’s name?

When you are not positively sure of a fact, put a question mark inside a pair of parentheses after the fact.

Someone in his family-his great-great-grandfather(?)-was the general during the War of the Dancing Toads.

QUOTATION MARKS

9. Quotation marks. (“ ”)

Put quotation marks around all the parts of a direct quotation.

1. at the beginning of a sentence:

“Your homework for tomorrow is to build a medieval castle out of sugar cubes,” said the history teacher.

2. in the middle of a sentence:

The history teacher said, “Your homework for tomorrow is to build a medieval castle out of sugar cubes,” and the class cheered.

3. at the end of a sentence:

The history teacher said, “Your homework for tomorrow is to build a medieval castle out of sugar cubes.”

4. that is split up in a sentence:

“Your homework for tomorrow,” said the history teacher, “is to build a medieval castle out of sugar cubes.”

Put quotation marks around the titles of:

songs: “My Old Kentucky Home”

chapters in a book: “The Neighbors from outer space”

Poems: “The road Not Taken”

Speeches: “I Have a dream”

SEMICOLONS

10. Semicolon. (;)

A semicolon looks like a period on top of a comma.

Put a semicolon before certain conjunctions or other connecting words and phrases that join independent clauses in a compound sentence.

Carlos was rich; however, he took the subway to work.

Ladi paid for the gas; therefore, she should get to drive.

Punctuate the following sentences correctly.

1. tunde is traveling tomorrow

2. how long do we have to wait for the commencement of the program

3. ann went to the market and bought tomatoes magi onions groundnut oil and pepper for her home economic practicals

4 adebayo has five children tunde joy kemi rita kunle who are all in the same school

5. wow what a beautiful hat that is.

6. marys friend has travelled abroad

7. Paula unlike her sister is a good athlete

8. Aishat wrote to her mother in abuja, Here we are materially well off, but spiritually deprived.

9. how do you want the money the banker asked the man

10. Oh I forgot to return the borrowed book to the library