Punctuation

Punctuation is the use of different marks in writing to make the meaning of the sentences clear.

ABC	,	'	's
Capital Letters	Comma	Apostrophe	Possessive
.	?	!	"..."
Full Stop	Question Mark	Exclamation Mark	Inverted Commas

Assertive and Imperative sentences require (.).
Exclamatory sentences and Interjections require (!).
Interrogative sentences require (?).

Capital letters are used :

• to start a sentence
• first letter of proper noun
• first letter of first word of inverted commas
• first letter of every line of a poem
• 'I' is always capital

Inverted commas (" ") are used to write direct speech within.

Let us look closely at commas

Usage of Comma	Examples
Between items of a series or a list	I planted daisies, roses, poppies and dahlias in my garden. I woke early, ate breakfast, got dressed and went out.
Between three or more adjectives or adverbs of same type.	This is an old, brown, wooden table. He worked quickly, quietly and confidently.
To give a puse in a long sentence	As it began to rain, we went in doors.

Using a comma to separate the last item in a list is optional; For example, Hari, ram, and Gita or Hari, Ram and gita - both are correct.

Apostrophe with possessive form

We use apostrophe with s to show belonging. This is used to make the possessive form of a noun.

We mostly use apostrophe (') with s with the following:

Apostrophe with possessive	Examples
People	These are the girl's books. (one girl) These are the girls' books. (two or more girls) This is Eve's book. This is my parents' cupboard. You can sleep in the children's room.
Animals	The dog's ears are ling. (one dog) These are the dogs' biscuits. (two or more dogs)
Some expressions of time	I'm taking a week's holiday in December. They gave me two months' leave.
Compound words	My brother-in-law's house is in the next lane.
The last noun to show joint possession of an object	Peter and Annes' bicycle was stolen yesterday.

With plural nouns, we only add an apostrophe after the -s. For examples :

• the girls' school
• the babies' toys

If the plural nouns do not end in an -s, then add the apostrophe and s. For examples :

• the women's bags
• the men's coats
• the children's crayons

We do not use apostrophe and s with names of places. For examples :

• Kovalam Beach
• Marine Drive

Apostrophe in contraction

We use apostrophes when we write contractions. The apostrophe shows the missing letter(s). Look at the words given below :

• are not = aren't
• will not = won't