Punctuation

This lesson was requested by Ozi_Hibz, I hope it will be useful for many of you!

Here is a brief explanation of a few elements of punctuation in English, full-stops and commas.

Full Stop (Known as a 'period' in America).

A full stop is used at the end of a complete sentence. This sentence must include a subject, which is what or whom the sentence is about. It must also include a predicate, which is some extra information about the subject.
E.g. Caroline loves to eat chocolate.

Comma

Commas are used for a few different things in English.
Firstly, they are used to separate items in a list.
E.g. Caroline loves to eat chocolate, read books, and ride roller-coasters.

Secondly, they are used to separate clauses, especially before a conjunction.
E.g. Caroline loves chocolate, but she never eats it for breakfast.

We also use a comma to separate two adjectives when the word 'and' can be used between them.
E.g. Philippa is a lovely, funny girl.

There are actually more than twenty rules for when we use commas, but let's focus on these for now! I find it very helpful to think of a comma as a short pause or 'half-breath' and a full-stop as a longer pause, or 'full breath'.

To help you practise, I have written a few sentences below without any punctuation. Can you rewrite them correctly?

1. I really wish I had a dog
2. Caroline who you met yesterday will be giving a lecture on ballet later
3. I think I like him he is a really nice interesting person
4. I have been to South Africa Tenerife France Spain and America
5. Have you ever been on a cruise I went on one last year it was amazing
6. There is hot water isn't there

Lesson by Caroline

Link: The importance of punctuation

• Sentence 1:
• Sentence 2
• Sentence 3:
• Sentence 4:
• Sentence 5:
• Sentence 6: