Punctuation Rules Chart

Punctuation Mark This punctuation mark is used

at the beginning of a sentence.

Example
The man walked down the road. Margaret

Capital Letters

at the beginning of a persons name. when writing I.

I am happy. Wednesday and May I will come, he said.

ABC

at the beginning of days and months. at the beginning of the first word inside quotation marks.

Full stops

at the end of a sentence. after the quotation marks if the spoken words are at the end of the sentence.

She walked down the road Margaret said, I will come.

Question Marks

at the end of a sentence that asks a question.

Did you buy the flowers?

?
Exclamation Marks
at the end of a sentence that is said with surprise or emotion. Stop! Let me go! she yelled. to separate items in a list. I saw elephants, lions, tigers and camels at the zoo. Margaret said, I will come.

!
Commas

to introduce the words spoken by a speaker (when the speakers name is given first). to replace a full stop inside quotation marks (when the words spoken are written at the start of the sentence)

I will come, he said.

Quotation Marks

Apostrophes

to enclose the actual words spoken by a speaker. to shorten words (placed where the letters have been left out). to show ownership ( use s)

I will come, he said. Cannot becomes cant. You are becomes youre. The mans shirt is red. The womens house is blue. The girls dresses are orange.

when the word is a plural and ends in s, es, or ies use the only.