Punctuation

Punctuation is the system of symbols (. , ! - : etc) that we use to separate sentences and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Each symbol is called a "punctuation mark".

The Value of Punctuation An English teacher wrote these words on the board: woman without her man is nothing The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly. The men wrote the top line. The women wrote the bottom line.

Summary of Punctuation Marks

Click on the link for each punctuation mark to find out more.

Punctuation Mark	Name	Example
	full stop or period	I like English.
	comma	I speak English, French and Thai.
	semi-colon	I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis.
	colon	You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract.
	hyphen	This is a rather out-of-date book.
	dash	In each town—London, Paris and Rome—we stayed in youth hostels.
	question mark	Where is Shangri-La?
	exclamation mark	"Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!"
	slash, forward slash or oblique	Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button.
	backslash	C:\Users\Files\jse.doc
	double quotation marks	"I love you," she said.
	single quotation marks	'I love you,' she said.
	apostrophe	This is John's car.
	underline	Have you read War and Peace?
	underscore	bin_lad@cia.gov
	round brackets	I went to Bagkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks.
	square brackets	The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released.
	ellipsis mark	One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen."

By, 

Teacher Ruby
 

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence.

Here are some example conjunctions:

Coordinating Conjunctions	Subordinating Conjunctions
and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so	although, because, since, unless

We can consider conjunctions from three aspects.

Form

Conjunctions have three basic forms:

• Single Word
  for example: and, but, because, although
  
• Compound (often ending with as or that)
  for example: provided that, as long as, in order that
  
• Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)
  for example: so...that

Function

Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

• Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal. The two parts may be single words or clauses, for example:
  - Jack and Jill went up the hill.
  - The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.
  
• Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example:
  - I went swimming although it was cold.

Position

• Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.
  
• Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

By,

Teacher Ruby

The Present Continuous Tense

We use the Present Continuous Tense to talk about activities happening now. Examples    The kids are watching TV.    I am sitting down, because I am tired.    I am not learning German, because this is an English class.    Who are you writing to? We can also use the Present Continuous Tense to talk about activities happening around now, and not necessarily this very moment. Examples    Sally is studying really hard for her exams this week.    I am reading a really interesting book now.    How are you brushing up on your English for the trip?    We aren't working hard these days. The Present Continuous Tense is also used to talk about activities happening in the near future, especially for planned future events. Examples    I am seeing my dentist on Wednesday.    Polly is coming for dinner tomorrow.    Are you doing anything tonight?    We aren't going on holiday next week. By,  Teacher Ruby :)