1. Period (.) - is used in the end of the sentence. However we put a period at the end of an indirect question.
Eg: Rome is the capital of Italy.
2. Question Mark (?) - We use question marks to make clear that what is said is a question. When we use a question mark, we do not use a full stop.
Eg: Why do they make so many mistakes?
3. Quotation Mark (" ") - are a pair of punctuation marks used primarily to mark the beginning and end of a passage attributed to another and repeated word for word. They are also used to indicate meanings and to indicate the unusual or dubious status of a word.
Eg: "Don't go outside," she said.
Single quotation marks (') are used most frequently for quotes within quotes.
Eg: Marie told the teacher, "I saw Marc at the playground, and he said to me 'Bill started the fight,' and I believed him."
4. Exclamation Point (!) - We use exclamation marks to indicate an exclamative clause or expression in informal writing. When we want to emphasise something in informal writing, we sometimes use more than one exclamation mark:
Eg: Listen!
Oh no!!! Please don’t ask me to phone her. She’ll talk for hours!!!
5. Comma - We put a comma (,) between items in a list. We often put a comma before 'or' , 'and' or 'but' when we add a clause.
Eg: It’s important to write in clear, simple, accurate words.
6. Colon (:) - is used to introduce lists, to indicate a subtitle or to indicate a subdivision of a topic, to introduce direct speech, and between sentences when the second sentence explains or justifies the first sentence.
Eg: There are three main reasons for the success of the government: economic, social and political.
7. Semi-colon (;) - We use semi-colons to separate two main clauses. In such cases, the clauses are related in meaning but are separated grammatically
Eg: Spanish is spoken throughout South America; in Brazil the main language is Portuguese.
8. Parentheses () - Parentheses ( ( ) ) are curved notations used to contain further thoughts or qualifying remarks. However, parentheses can be replaced by commas without changing the meaning in most cases.
Eg: John and Jane (who were actually half brother and sister) both have red hair.
9. Hyphen - A hyphen is used to join two or more words together into a compound term and is not separated by spaces. For example, part-time, back-to-back, well-known.
