Check out our page on Improving your English punctuation. Read the quick review and try the quiz below!
Capital letters
After the greeting in an email, start the next line with a capital letter. (“Thanks”, not ”thanks” for example.)
Remember that days of the week and months of the year start with a capital letter.
Always use a capital I when you talk about yourself. (not “i”)
Full stop
We use a full stop (.) to show a decimal point.
Comma
We use commas to separate thousands and hundreds. (And also millions: 1,250,000)
You don’t need a comma before ”and”, ”so” or ”but” when both clauses are short. But use a comma to separate longer clauses which are related in meaning.
Semi-colon
When the clauses are longer (and when the subject in each is different) use a semi-colon (;) rather than a comma.
Apostrophe
To show possession, we use ‘s for singular (a girl’s school = the school of one girl) or s’ for plural, regular nouns (girls’ school = the school of many girls).
We don’t use an apostrophe for possessive pronouns. (yours, hers, ours, theirs).
English Punctuation
Choose the correct answer.