# Punctuation and Capital Letters

https://langs123.com/en/english/foundations/punctuation/
CEFR B2–C1 · 2026-10-19 · CC BY 4.0, langs123 contributors (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

> Capital letters and marks such as full stops, commas, apostrophes, colons and quotation marks show where sentences end, how clauses join and who speaks. A comma alone never joins two main clauses: It was late, so we went home. It was late; we went home.

## Cheatsheet

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sentence end | full stop after an indirect question, question mark after a direct one | She asked where I was going. / Where are you going? |
| Comma: clauses | after an opening clause; before but, so or yet | If it rains, we stay in. / I was tired, so I went home. |
| Comma: asides | a pair of commas round extra information | Anna, who lives here, is a nurse. |
| Apostrophe | contractions and possession; none in plurals or in its | I don’t know. / two CDs / the dog wagged its tail |
| Colon and semicolon | colon introduces; semicolon joins related clauses | Two options: stay or go. / Tom likes tea; Ana likes coffee. |
| Hyphen and dash | hyphen before the noun, none after; en dash for ranges | a well-known author / the years 1990–2000 |
| Quotation marks | single marks; the comma stands inside them before the speaker | ‘Come in,’ she said. |
| Capital letters | names, nationalities, languages, days, months; not seasons | She teaches Spanish on Mondays in summer. |
| Commas and meaning | commas add information; without them the clause identifies | my brother who lives in Leeds ≠ my brother, who lives in Leeds, |
| Opening phrases | comma after an opening participle or absolute phrase; none before that | Having finished, she left. / The work done, they went home. |
| Dash, colon, semicolon | colon explains, semicolon balances, dash adds emphasis | I knew the answer – but I said nothing. |
| Trap | its shows ownership; it’s = it is or it has | The dog wagged its tail. ≠ It’s raining. |

## Sentence ends and abbreviations

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| full stop . | ends a statement or an order | We left at six. |
| full stop . | ends an indirect question | She asked where I was going. |
| question mark ? | ends a direct question | Where are you going? |
| exclamation mark ! | ends an exclamation or a strong order; one mark is enough | What a view! / Stop! |
| abbreviation that keeps the last letter of the word | written without a full stop: Mr, Mrs, Dr, St | Please ask Dr Khan. (US: Please ask Dr. Khan.) |
| abbreviation that is cut short | a full stop: Prof., etc.; at the end of a sentence it also ends the sentence | Ask Prof. Lee. / We sell pens, paper, etc. |
| initials and acronyms | written without full stops | She works for the BBC. |

## Comma

| A comma | Example |
| --- | --- |
| separates the items of a list; the comma before the final and is optional | We bought apples, pears and plums. (US: We bought apples, pears, and plums.) |
| follows an opening adverbial or clause | If it rains, we stay in. / However, the room was cold. |
| comes before but, so or yet when it joins two main clauses | The film was long, but we enjoyed it. |
| opens and closes a non-defining clause or an added phrase | Our neighbour, who is a nurse, helps us. / Tom, our new manager, starts today. |
| sets off the name of the person addressed | Thanks for your help, Tom. / Tom, come here. |
| comes before a question tag | It’s cold today, isn’t it? |
| never stands between a subject and its verb, however long the subject | The man in the grey coat is my uncle. |
| never joins two main clauses alone: add a conjunction, or use a semicolon or a full stop | It was late, so we left. / It was late; we left. / It was late. We left. |

- Defining and non-defining clauses: see Relative clauses.

## Apostrophe

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| the apostrophe stands for the missing letters of a contraction | I don’t know. / It’s late. |
| the apostrophe shows the owner; the forms are in Possessive 's | Ana’s car / my parents’ house |
| plurals of abbreviations and decades take s alone | two CDs / three MPs / in the 1990s |
| its, whose, hers, yours, ours and theirs show ownership by their form alone | The dog wagged its tail. / That coat is hers. |
| the apostrophe marks the plural of a single letter | Mind your p’s and q’s. |

## Colon and semicolon

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| colon : | introduces a list after a complete clause | There are three options: stay, leave or wait. |
| colon : | introduces an explanation | I stayed at home: it was raining. |
| colon : | introduces a quotation | The sign said: ‘Keep out.’ |
| semicolon ; | joins two related main clauses | Tom likes tea; Ana prefers coffee. |
| semicolon ; | separates list items that contain commas | We visited Leeds, in England; Cardiff, in Wales; and Belfast, in Northern Ireland. |

## Hyphen and dash

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| hyphen - | joins a compound modifier before a noun | a well-known author / a five-year-old child |
| compound after the noun | separate words | The author is well known. / The child is five years old. |
| en dash – | joins the two ends of a range, with no spaces | the years 1990–2000 / 3–5 July |
| dash – | a pair sets off an aside; British style spaces an en dash, American style closes up an em dash | Her flat – a tiny studio – is near the station. (US: Her flat—a tiny studio—is near the station.) |

## Quotation marks and direct speech

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| British English puts single marks round the words spoken; American English uses double marks | Tom said, ‘I’m tired.’ (US: Tom said, “I’m tired.”) |
| a comma and a capital letter introduce speech that follows the speaker | She said, ‘Come in.’ |
| a comma, not a full stop, ends speech before the speaker; it stands inside the marks, and ? and ! stay | ‘Come in,’ she said. / ‘Where are you going?’ she asked. |
| each new speaker starts a new line | ‘Are you ready?’ asked Tom. — ‘Almost,’ said Ana. |
| marks go round a title when italics are not possible, as in handwriting | We read ‘Emma’ in class. |
| marks go round a word used in a doubtful or special sense | He is a ‘friend’ who never calls. |

- Direct speech turned into reported speech: see Reported speech.

## Capital letters

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| capital for the first word of a sentence and for the pronoun I | The train was late. / Tom and I were late. |
| capital for names of people, places and organisations | Ana lives in Madrid. |
| capital for nationalities and languages | My teacher is Polish and speaks French. |
| capital for adjectives made from names | a Victorian house |
| capital for days, months and holidays | We meet on Friday in March, and at Easter. |
| small letter for seasons | We go skiing in winter. |
| capital for a title before a name; small letter for a title on its own | I met Dr Khan and the prime minister. |
| capitals on the main words of a title; small letters on articles, prepositions and conjunctions inside it | I loved The Lord of the Rings. |
| capital for every letter of an acronym | Both NASA and the EU fund the project. |
| capital for a compass point only when it is part of a name | We drove south. ≠ She was born in South Africa. |

## Layout: paragraphs, letters and emails

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| a mark follows its word with no space before it and one space after it | Wait, please. |
| a new paragraph starts a new topic or a new stage of an argument | — |

| Writing to | Opening | Closing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| someone you know by name | Dear Mr Smith, | Yours sincerely, (US: Sincerely,) |
| someone you do not know by name | Dear Sir or Madam, | Yours faithfully, |
| a friend or colleague | Hi Tom, | Best wishes, |

## Comma: meaning and longer phrases

| No commas | Commas |
| --- | --- |
| tells which brother: I have several | adds a fact about my only brother |
| My brother who lives in Leeds is a vet. | My brother, who lives in Leeds, is a vet. |
| tells which students: only some passed | adds a fact about all the students |
| The students who passed got a prize. | The students, who passed, got a prize. |
| tells which friend: I have several | adds a fact about my only friend |
| My friend Anna lives here. | My friend, Anna, lives here. |

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| a linker such as however or therefore inside a clause takes a comma on each side | The hotel, however, was clean. |
| which after a comma refers to the whole clause before it | It rained all day, which spoiled the picnic. |
| such as and including take commas when the examples add information | She loves big cities, such as Paris and Rome. / Many cities, including Paris, are expensive. |
| a comma follows an opening phrase with -ing or -ed | Having finished, she left. / Surprised by the news, he sat down. |
| a comma follows an absolute phrase, which has a subject of its own | The work done, they went home. |
| a that-clause follows its verb or noun with no comma | She said that she was ill. / The idea that we should wait is wrong. |

## Parentheses, brackets, ellipsis and slash

| Point | Rule | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| parentheses | hold an aside that can be removed; the full stop stays outside | We left early (at six). |
| parentheses | keep the full stop inside when they hold a whole sentence | We left early. (It was raining.) |
| square brackets | add the writer’s words inside a quotation; [sic] marks a mistake in the original | ‘He [the manager] said no.’ |
| ellipsis ... | three full stops show words left out of a quotation, or a pause | ‘The report ... was late.’ |
| slash | joins alternatives, with no spaces round it: and/or | Please bring a passport and/or a driving licence. |
| bullet list | a colon follows the lead-in, and every item ends the same way | — |

## Quotations, titles and abbreviations

| Rule | Example |
| --- | --- |
| a quotation inside a quotation takes the other kind of mark | Tom said, ‘Ana called the plan “perfect” and left.’ (US: Tom said, “Ana called the plan ‘perfect’ and left.”) |
| a long quotation stands as an indented block, without quotation marks | — |
| titles of books, films, newspapers and albums are in italics | She is reading Emma. |
| titles of articles, poems, songs and chapters take quotation marks | I like the poem ‘Ozymandias’. |
| title case begins every main word; sentence case begins only the first word and names | How Children Learn to Read / How children learn to read |
| e.g. introduces examples; a comma goes before it, and American English adds one after it | She likes hot drinks, e.g. tea and cocoa. (US: She likes hot drinks, e.g., tea and cocoa.) |
| i.e. restates what came before, with the same commas as e.g. | She is vegetarian, i.e. she eats no meat. (US: She is vegetarian, i.e., she eats no meat.) |

## Compare: dash, colon, semicolon and full stop

| Mark | Choose it to | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| colon : | explain or list what the first clause announces | She had one fear: heights. |
| semicolon ; | balance two related statements of equal weight | Tom likes tea; Ana likes coffee. |
| dash – | add an emphatic or informal turn | He promised to call – he never did. |
| full stop . | keep two statements fully separate | It was late. We went home. |

## Typical errors

| ✗ | ✓ | Rule |
| --- | --- | --- |
| She asked where I was going? | She asked where I was going. | an indirect question ends with a full stop |
| What a view!!! | What a view! | one exclamation mark is enough |
| It was late, we went home. | It was late, so we went home. | a comma alone cannot join two main clauses |
| The man in the grey coat, is my uncle. | The man in the grey coat is my uncle. | no comma stands between a subject and its verb |
| My sister, who lives in Leeds is a nurse. | My sister, who lives in Leeds, is a nurse. | a non-defining clause needs a comma at both ends |
| The dog wagged it’s tail. | The dog wagged its tail. | its shows ownership and takes no apostrophe |
| Its raining again. | It’s raining again. | it’s = it is or it has |
| two CD’s and three MP’s | two CDs and three MPs | a plural takes no apostrophe |
| I need: a pen and a form. | I need a pen and a form. | a colon follows a complete clause, never a verb |
| a five-years-old child | a five-year-old child | a unit in a hyphenated modifier stays singular |
| ‘Come in.’ she said. | ‘Come in,’ she said. | a comma, not a full stop, ends speech before the speaker |
| My teacher is polish and speaks english. | My teacher is Polish and speaks English. | nationalities and languages take a capital letter |
| She said, that she was ill. | She said that she was ill. | no comma stands before a that-clause |
| The hotel however was clean. | The hotel, however, was clean. | however inside a clause takes a comma on each side |
| Having finished she left. | Having finished, she left. | a comma follows an opening participle phrase |
| It rained all day which spoiled the picnic. | It rained all day, which spoiled the picnic. | which referring to a whole clause follows a comma |