Exclamation Mark.
Also sometimes referred to as the exclamation point, especially in American English, is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings, or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, for example: "Watch out!" Similarly, a bare exclamation mark (with nothing before or after) is often established in warning signs.
Interrogation Mark.
Question marks are used in direct questions, i.e. when the actual words of a speaker are used. A reported question should end with a full stop.
Quotation Marks.
Quotation marks, also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks, are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an opening quotation mark and a closing quotation mark, which may or may not be the same character.
Capital Letters.
Capital letters are not really an aspect of punctuation, but it is convenient to deal with them here. The rules for using them are mostly very simple.
(a) The first word of a sentence, or of a fragment, begins with a capital letter:
The bumbling wizard Rincewind is Pratchett's most popular character.
Will anyone now alive live to see a colony on the moon? Probably not.
Distressingly few pupils can locate Iraq or Japan on a map of the world.
(b) The names of the days of the week, and of the months of the year, are written with a capital letter:
Next Sunday France will hold a general election.
Mozart was born on 27 January, 1756.
Football practice takes place on Wednesdays and Fridays.
However, the names of seasons are not written with a capital:
Like cricket, baseball is played in the summer.
Do not write *"... in the Summer".
(c) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. Be careful about this; it's a very common mistake.
Juliet speaks English, French, Italian and Portuguese.
I need to work on my Spanish irregular verbs.
Among the major languages of India are Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil.
These days, few students study Latin and Greek.
Full Stop.
The full stop, period or full point . is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as opposed to a question or exclamation); this sentence-terminal use, alone, defines the strictest sense of full stop.
Comma.
There are some general rules which you can apply when using the comma. However, you will find that in English there are many other ways to use the comma to add to the meaning of a sentence or to emphasise an item, point, or meaning.
Although we are often taught that commas are used to help us add 'breathing spaces' to sentences they are, in fact, more accurately used to organise blocks of thought or logical groupings. Most people use commas to ensure that meaning is clear and, despite grammatical rules, will drop a comma if their meaning is retained without it.
Colon.
The colon is used to introduce a list of items.
Example
The bookstore specializes in three subjects: art, architecture, and graphic design.
Do not, however, use a colon when the listed items are incorporated into the flow of the sentence.
Correct
The bookstore specializes in art, architecture, and graphic design.
Incorrect
The bookstore specializes in: art, architecture, and graphic design.
Semicolon.
The semicolon is sometimes described as stronger than a comma but weaker than a period. In certain uses, this is a reasonably accurate definition. Yet there is more to the semicolon than that.
