Learn PUNCTUATION Easily in 30 Minutes in this Punctuation Masterclass. Also see - MOST COMMON MISTAKES IN ENGLISH & HOW TO AVOID THEM:    • 50 MOST COMMON MISTAKES in English Gr...  

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In this lesson, you will learn the rules for using:
- period/full stop (.)
- exclamation mark (!)
- question mark (?)
- comma (,)
- semicolon (;)
- colon (:)
- apostrophe (')

Partial transcript:
Hello, and welcome back. In this lesson, I’m going to teach you the rules for using the seven most important punctuation marks, so that you can write correct English without making mistakes. There are exercises within the lesson to help you practice, and as always there is a final quiz at the end of the video. So, if you’re ready, let’s begin. We’re going to start with terminal punctuation. ‘Terminal’ means the end, so terminal punctuation marks are what we use to end a sentence. There are three of these: the period or the full stop, the exclamation mark, and the question mark. Let’s look at the period first. This mark is called the period in American English (AmE means American English), and it’s called the full stop in British English. It is used to mark the end of declarative and imperative sentences. I’ll explain. Here are some examples: “I teach English.” “We had pizza for dinner last night.” “If it rains tomorrow, I’ll bring my umbrella.” These sentences are called declarative sentences because they declare something; they give us some information. And at the end of each sentence, you see a period or full stop. Imperative sentences are commands or requests: “Please don’t feed the animals.” You might see this on a sign in a zoo. “Let me know what time your flight arrives.” “If it rains tomorrow, bring your umbrella.” Let’s now turn to the exclamation mark. It is used to convey strong emotion or feeling. Have a look at these two sentences: Both of them mean the same thing. The first sentence, which ends in a period, has no special feeling or emotion; it’s like saying “I’m really excited about my new job.” Doesn’t sound like I’m very excited, does it? That’s why we use the exclamation mark: “I’m really excited about my new job!” – it tells our reader to read the sentence with emotion – in this sentence, the emotion is excitement. This next sentence: “If you come to work late tomorrow, you’re fired!” Imagine a manger saying this to an employee. So, this expresses anger. In the same way, you can show many other feelings including surprise, joy, fear etc. using the exclamation mark. Now, both of these sentences are declarative, but you can also use the exclamation mark in an imperative sentence like this one: “Johnny, don’t play with your food!” You can imagine a mother saying that angrily to her son. So, it’s a strong or strict command. Another place where we use the exclamation mark is after interjections. Here are a couple of sentences: “Ouch! You just stepped on my foot!” “Wow! What a beautiful house!” Interjections are words like “ouch” and “wow” which are used to express feelings. So, remember: if you want to convey strong emotion in a sentence, put an exclamation mark at the end of it. If there’s no special feeling, just end the sentence with a period. OK, let’s turn now to the third terminal punctuation symbol: the question mark. It is used to mark the end of a question. So, it’s very straightforward: if a sentence is a question, then put a question mark at the end of it. Here are some examples: “What do you do?” “Are we allowed to feed the animals?” “If it rains tomorrow, should I bring my umbrella?” “Are you excited about your new job?” “Who lives in that house?” So, the rule is: if a sentence is a question, it must end with a question mark. Alright, let’s do a small exercise now. There are four sentences on the screen. I want you to add periods or full stops, exclamation marks and question marks where necessary. Stop the video, think about your answers, then play the video and check. OK, here are the answers. If you want, stop the video again, check your answers, then play the video and continue. Before we move on to the next topic, a quick note on spacing. Notice that there is no space between the last letter of a sentence and the terminal punctuation mark. If you put a space there, it’s wrong. But, when you begin a new sentence, you should leave a space after the terminal mark, and you should start the new sentence with a capital letter.