| Full stop | a paragraph ends with a full stop; the next one opens with an indent | Aquí termina el primer tema. | The first topic ends here. |
| Comma | two commas enclose an aside, a clarification or a non-defining relative clause | El viaje, dice Marta, será largo. | The journey, says Marta, will be long. |
| Colon | they introduce a list or a quotation; they close an enumeration | El curso tiene tres partes: gramática, escritura y lectura. / Pan, queso, aceitunas: eso era toda la cena. | The course has three parts: grammar, writing and reading. / Bread, cheese, olives: that was the whole dinner. |
| Semicolon | it separates clauses that already contain commas, and clauses with the verb left out | Mi tía, muy cansada, se sentó; llevaba horas de pie. / Ana es abogada; Luis, ingeniero. | My aunt, very tired, sat down; she had been on her feet for hours. / Ana is a lawyer; Luis, an engineer. |
| Ellipsis | they leave a sentence unfinished; [...] marks an omission in a quotation | Si hubiera llegado antes... | If I had arrived earlier... |
| Quotation marks and dash | quotation marks nest in the order « », “ ”, ‘ ’; the dash encloses asides and opens dialogue | Luis dijo: «Ana gritó “¡Gol!”». / El cambio —que llegó rápido— nos sorprendió. | Luis said: ‘Ana shouted “Goal!”’. / The change – which came quickly – surprised us. |
| C1Comma | a fronted subordinate clause ends with a comma | Si tuviera tiempo, te ayudaría. | If I had time, I would help you. |
| C1Colon and semicolon | a colon explains; a semicolon comes before sin embargo | La paella es valenciana: lleva arroz y azafrán. / Trabajó todo el día; sin embargo, aceptó salir. | Paella comes from Valencia: it has rice and saffron. / He worked all day; however, he agreed to go out. |
| C1Other marks | an asterisk precedes the incorrect form; the full stop follows the note number | *Me alegro que hayas ido. ≠ Me alegro de que hayas ido. | I am glad you went. |
| C2Colon | they introduce the cause or the consequence of what was said | No salimos: llovía mucho. / Perdió el vuelo: durmió en el aeropuerto. | We did not go out: it was raining hard. / He missed his flight: he slept at the airport. |
| C2Other marks | slashes enclose phonemes and separate lines of verse; an apostrophe appears in foreign surnames | El fonema /t/ es dental. · Bernardo O’Higgins | The phoneme /t/ is dental. · Bernardo O’Higgins |
| Trap | titles and the place-and-date line of a letter end without a full stop | Lima, 10 de mayo de 2026 | Lima, 10 May 2026 |