Prof.

Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990

PUNCTUATION.
The Capital letter.

1. The first word of every sentence.

2. The first word of a sentence written within inverted commas.
3. The first word of each line of the poetry.
4. Proper nouns or proper adjectives.(Pakistani, Persian)
5. Word & Pronoun used for God.
6. Personified object. (O Death, where is thy sting?)
7. The pronoun “I” and interjection “O”
8. Abbreviations and initials of names
9. Every word in a heading or title, except preposition and article
10. Names of days, months, festivals
11. For salutation and forms of address and for greeting and complimentary close in letter, (Mr. Sir, Madam, Yours
truly, Prof, Dr.
12. Not with direction but if part of word then capital. (She looks towards the north. She spent most of her life in the
West.)
13. Name of oceans.
14. Name of square, street and roads.
15. The names of books, magazines and newspapers.
16. Names of countries, cities, provinces, rivers, mountains lakes.
17. Names of movements, periods, events in history.
18. Capital letter is not repeated in second part of broken question.

The Full Stop (.)

1. To mark the end of a declarative sentence, a mild command or an indirect sentence.

2. To mark the end of some abbreviation and initials.
3. In general abbreviation of governments and international agencies do not take periods.
4. The full stop is optional if the contraction includes the final letter of the word. (Dr, Mr, Ltd, Mrs.)
5. Place a decimal point between rupees and paisa
6. A comma or other punctuation mark may follow after an abbreviation but not at end of sentence.
7. Three continuous full stop are placed to show the omission of some words or incomplete passage fourth full stop
mark end of sentence.
8. Full stop is also used to separate hours and minutes.

The question mark (?)

1. The question mark is used after a direct question.

2. The question mark is used within parentheses to indicate that a date or other statement is doubtful. (He was born
in 1975 (?) and died after ten years.)
3. The question mark may follow separate questions within a single interrogative sentence. (Do you recall the time
of the accident? the license numbers of the cars involved? The names of drivers? Of the witness?)
4. Do not use question mark at the end of indirect question.
5. The question mark is used after polite requests. (Would you mind giving me your pen?)

Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990

Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990
The Exclamation Mark (!)

The exclamation mark is used after phrases and sentences expressing some strong emotions or sudden feelings of mind.

The comma (,)

1. To mark off words used in addressing a person. (Aslam, do not find fault with others. Rizwan, I hope you and
Tayyaba can come to the party.)
2. When you show name after title or title after name. (I saw Miss Perveen, your teacher, this morning.)
3. To marks series of words of same class. (Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia are friends. The boys purchased pencils,
erasers and papers from the shop.)
4. Between pairs of words connected with and. (High and low, rich and poor all must die one day.)
5. To indicate omission of words in sentence. (What you do is your responsibility; what I do, mine.)
6. Used between day and year in a date. (April 24, 2017.)
7. Before and after some certain words like however, at last, of course, well, therefore, indeed, meanwhile, to sum
up, first, no doubt, after all, to say the last, to tell the truth, all the same, on the whole, finally, for instance etc.
(She did not, whoever, help me,)
8. To separate direct and indirect speech.
9. Used after a negative and affirmative adverb (Yes, No) that begins a sentence.
10. To separate adverbial clause. If, when, where, unless, until, after, before, since, though and because (Until you
work hard, you cannot pass the examination.)
11. To separate more than one abbreviation. He is M.A., M.Sc.
12. Used after complementary close. Yours sincerely,
13. Comma is used to separate interrogative and declarative. (He is your brother, isn’t he?)
14. To separate set of three digits (1,659.)
15. Use a comma before a conjunction linking two independent clauses. (And, for, but, or, not, so, yet) (I saw the
game, but I do not remember the score. She drove us to the market, and I bought another set of pens.)
16. Do not put a comma before conjunction that links a pair of words of phrases. (I phones the store and asked to
speak the manager.)
17. The comma is placed with relative pronoun of adverb (who, which, whom, whose, that etc.) when they explain or
add to the meaning of a noun or a pronoun that has given before. (Abid, who is a hard working student, came first
in the class. I have returned the book, which you have given to me yesterday.)
18. When two figures came together in a sentence. (In 1991, 435 employees attended the meeting.)
19. It is a common practice that while writing a series of word last two words are joined with “and”. The comma is
not placed before “and”. But according to Oxford dictionary, the comma is placed after “and”. (The following will
report at 9:30 sharp: Aslam, Akram, Zeeshan, and, Arslan.)

The Semi Colon (;)

1. To mark off coordinates clauses connected by following conjunctions. Otherwise, therefore, so, then, for, yet, still,
thus, however, furthermore, moreover, indeed, also, hence, else, but, nevertheless, consequently, accordingly
etc. (Take care of your health; otherwise you will be ill. Drink milk; for it is a perfect diet. I like the samples very
much; therefore, I am going to order seven dozen.)
2. Sometimes semi colons are placed in sentences which are complete but do not have any conjunction. (It was
morning; a cool breeze was blowing; the birds were wittering; the followers were blossoming; the atmosphere
was charming.)
3. Boys may go; girls may stay.
Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990
Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990
4. The Semi colon may replace the words “and” and “and then”. (She came; she saw; she went away. He looked at
it; he hesitated; he jumped.)
5. The difference between comma and semi colon is that, sometimes placing comma does not means that both
sentences are complete like wearing a cap, he went out. Whereas placing the semi colon means both sentences
are complete like man proposes; God disposes.

The Colon (:)

1. The colon is used to introduce a quotation.

2. The colon is used before a list that appears at the end. (The great cities of Pakistan are: Lahore, Karachi:
Faisalabad and Multan.)
3. A colon can be used in place of “but, then, so, because”. (I refused the offer: I do not wish to go there. Speech
is silver: silence is gold.)
4. To introduce some example. (The subject comes before verb: “Rizwan reads a book”.)
5. To separate hours and minutes.
6. To indicate share and proportions. (Combine the three chemical in a 3:5:1 ratio.)
7. The colon is not followed by a capital letter except a quotation is given.
8. The colon is used to mark off the writer from its book. (Prof. Zia Ur Rehman Qamar: The Simple English
Grammar & Composition.)

The Quotation Marks or Inverted Commas (“ ”)

1. To report the exact words of the speaker. (He said, “Life is not a bed of roses.”)
2. For the title of book, essay, poem, etc.
3. Single quotation marks are used to show a quotation within a quotation. (He said to his students, “Do not cheat
others, be honest as ‘honesty is the best policy’,”)

The Dash (--)

1. Is used to indicate a sudden stop or change of thought. (If my father were alive—but why for the past weep.)
2. Is used before and after the explanatory words. (There was a time—a golden time—when I was young.)
3. To indicate intentional omission of some words or name. (Mr._________ is fond of gambling.)
4. To indicate hesitation. (I__I am afraid I cannot lend you this book.)

The Hyphen (-).

1. To connect parts of compound word. (Dining-room, writing-table, flying-club, passer-by)

2. To break a word at the end of a line. (Knowl-edge)
3. To write number between 20 and hundred. (21, Twenty-one-99, ninety-nine)
4. In list of given words {All forms of Law(Brother-in-law), Great compound(great-aunt, great-grandfather), All vice
compounds(Vice-chairman, vice-consul), All elect compounds(Mayor-elect), All self-compound (self-taught, self-
assured)}
5. To separate syllables in words (in-te-ri-or)
6. To write fraction (Two-third)

Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990

Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990
The Apostrophe (‘)

1. To form possessive of singular nouns (A girl’s hat, Rizwan’s car, The cow’s tail.)
2. To form the possessive of plural nouns not ending in ‘S’(Men’s activities, children’s park)
3. In case of two or more nouns in case of join possession, use with the last one. (Akram and Aslam’s shop)
4. If want to show separate possession, use with all separately (Akram’s and Aslam’s shop)
5. In case of compound words, used with the last one. (My sister-in-law’s career)
6. With indefinite pronoun (Someone’s fault)
7. I have= I’ve, Is not= isn’t, does not= doesn’t, will not= won’t, should have= should’ve, I shall= I’ll, cannot= can’t
8. Omission of numbers in date (1981=’81, the election of ’09)
9. Word ending with ‘S’, don’t need an additional ‘S’( Girls’ school, workers’ union)

Brackets [ ], The Parentheses ( ).

1. ( ) used to show additional information e.g He is (as he always was) a rebel.

2. ( ) to indicate reference e.g Quaid-e-Azam (1876-1948).

Prof. Irfan Tariq (Lecturer) 0333-8960990