Punctuation marks

1. Apostrophe
Apostrophes are used in three different ways:
i. in possessive nouns
ii. in contractions
iii. to make letters, signs, symbols, and numbers plural
Possessive Nouns.
“To possess” means “to own.” So possessive nouns
show ownership.
A. Singular Possessive Nouns.
Add „s to make any singular noun Possessive.
e.g.
The bird‟s wings were green and blue.
Monica‟s hat blew across the street.

B. Plural Possessive Nouns.
If the last letter of a plural noun is s, just add an
apostrophe to make the noun possessive.
If the last letter of a plural noun is not s, add „s to
make the noun possessive.
Plural nouns that Possessive forms
end with the letter s (add just an apostrophe)
babies babies‟
teachers teaches‟
girls girls‟
Plural nouns that don‟t Plural possessive forms
end with the letter s (add „s)
children children‟s
geese geese‟s
men men‟s

Contractions.
Use an apostrophe in a contraction to show where
the missing letter or letters used to be.
“To contract means to shorten.” The two words being
contracted are usually
a pronoun + a verb (I + will= I‟ll) or
a verb + “not” (did + not= didn‟t).
common contractions.
can‟t=cannot she‟ ll=she will
doesn‟t=does not we‟d=we would/had
he‟s=he is we‟re=we are
I‟d=I would/had we‟ve=we have
mightn‟t=might not would‟ve=would have
needn‟t=need not you‟re=you are

Use apostrophe to make letters, numbers, symbols
signs, and punctuation marks plural.
Sometimes when you are writing, you have to
make something plural that isn‟t a word.
Add „s to make a letter plural.
e.g.
Your a‟s look just like your u‟s because you don‟t
close the tops.
Her handwriting is weird. She dots her e‟s and
crosses her b‟s.
Add „s or just s to make a number or a decade plural.
with an apostrophe:
e.g. In the late 1960‟s, American astronauts went to
the moon.
Does your phone number have 4‟s or three?

without an apostrophe:
In the late 1990s, people looked forward to the
twenty-first century.
Please cut out more 6s for the math bulletin
board.
Add „s to make a symbol, sign, or punctuation
mark plural.
There are too many #‟s, &‟s, and !‟s on this
poster.
The math teacher says I make my =„s crooked.

2. Capital letters.
Capitalize the first word in a sentence.
The bunny ate too much, got dizzy, and fell off
the sofa.
Capitalize the pronoun „I‟.
He had the nerve to say that I sang off key-I,
who took singing lessons with Madame Margo
for five years!
Capitalize proper nouns.
Roslyn Penn
Columbia Prep School
Rocky Mountains
Capitalize proper adjectives.
Proper adjectives come from proper nouns.

Proper Noun Proper Adjective
America American
Boston Bostonian
Florida Floridian
Nigeria Nigerian
Norway Norwegian

Capitalize important titles, even if the person‟s
name is not mentioned.
The President of United States went to the
circus.
The Prime Minister forgot his hat at the
conference.

Capitalize abbreviation of titles after someone‟s
name.
Martin Luther King, Jr
Esther Brill, Ph.D.
John Ken, M.D
Capitalize the days of the week and month of the
year.
Monday, Sunday, Friday, etc.
January, April, may etc.
Capitalize the first word in every line of poetry.
Birds, birds everywhere,
In the trees and in my hair;
Birds are fowl, but some are fair;
A bird is sitting in my chair!

3. Colons. (
A colon looks like two periods, one on top of
the other.
Use a colon between the chapter and verse
numbers when referring to the parts of the Bible.
Genesis 1:7 (These refers to the book of
Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 7).
Luke 3:15
Psalms 22:17
Use a colon after the greetings (salutation) to a
formal or business letter.
Dear Board of Directors: Dear Editor:
Dear Madam: Gentlemen:
To Whom it May Concern: Dear Sirs:

Capitalize the names of languages.
French Spanish Latin
Capitalize the names of all the planets in solar
system, including Earth (but not sun and moon).
Jupiter, the largest planet, has many moons.
There is more water than earth on the planet
Earth, so our planet should be named Ocean.

Use a colon after headings in a memo.
To: Lanre
From: John
Date: July 19, 2000
Use a colon to separate the hours from the
minutes when you write the time of day.
2:17a.m 8:05p.m
6:19p.m
Use a colon to separate a heading or an
introductory label from the words that follow it.
HEADLINE: Man falls Into Eyeglass Machine,
Makes Spectacle of himself.

4. Commas. (,)

Put a comma between independent clauses
of equal value when there are three or more,
and they don‟t have commas in them.
Katie bought the food, Tommy cooked the
meal, and Essie washed the dishes.

Put a comma after the close of any letter
(personal or business, friendly or not).
Sincerely yours, Love,
Best regards, Warmest wishes,
Put a comma after the greeting of a personal
letter.
Dear Aunt Paula, Hi, Max,
Put a comma to avoid confusion (by making the
reader pause slightly).
Shortly after, the carnival shut down.
Miriam rolled on, on her new roller skates.

Use commas to set off appositives.
An appositive is a noun that comes after another
noun(or noun phrase) and gives additional
information about it. An appositive can come in
the middle or end of a sentence.
e.g.
noun appositive

Dr. William, the headmaster of our school,
never shouts. noun

One appositive who never shouts is Dr. William,
person
the headmaster of our school.

Use commas to set off expressions or words
that brake the flow of thought at the beginning
or in the middle of a sentence.
Well, I didn‟t realize he was seven feet tall
when I said I would go out on a date with him.
At that time, however, the goat still lived in the
house.

5. Exclamation points. (!)
Exclamation points are sometimes called
exclamation marks.
Use an exclamation point at the end of an
exclamatory sentence that is full of strong
feelings (like joy, fear, anger or surprise).
She loves me! She loves me! Who is she?
I‟m going to be a banana in a television
commercial!
Put an exclamation point after a strong
interjection at the beginning of a sentence.
Yicks! The pickle truck turned over in the
middle of town.

6. Hyphens. (-)
A hyphen is a short, horizontal line.
Use a hyphen to connect parts of some
compound nouns.
son-in-law
self-awareness
tractor-trailer
Use a hyphen with –elect.
Mayor-elect,
Governor-elect,
President elect.

Put a hyphen in a compound word between a
prefix and a proper noun or an adjective.
mid-July festival
pro-Middle East peace
Use a hyphen to join the parts of a fractions when
it is written out as words.
two-fifths
three-sixteenths
five-eights
Use hyphens when you spell out a word for
emphasis.
I want this filthy, that‟s f-i-l-t-h-y, room cleaned up
immediately!
When I say no, I mean no! N-o.No!

Put hyphen after some prefixes like ex-,self-,
and all-,expecially if the last letter of the
prefix is the same as the first letter of the
word it‟s connected to.
anti-inflammatory ex-mayor
re-elect pro-feminist
all-loving

7. Periods. (.)
Put periods at the end of a sentence that
states a fact, makes a comment, or expresses
an opinion.
Tuesday is the best day because I eat lunch
early.
A guppy is a little fish, but it can have
hundreds of babies.
Put a period at the end of a mild command or a
request.
Please stop doing that.
Will you pass the peas, please.

Put a period after abbreviations.
Ms. Diana,
Mrs. Addison,
Powell, Capt. (captain) Lew
Dr. Sherman, Gen.(General)
44 B.C.(or B.C.E)
Smith & Co. (company)
the science dept, (department)
Put a period after initials in people‟s names.
Susan B. Anthony
E.B. White
Michall J. Fox

8. Question marks. (?)
Put a question mark at the end of a direct
question.
Is your name Miss Kleiman?
How many miles are there in a light-year?
What is your father‟s name?
When you are not positively sure of a fact, put
a question mark inside a pair of parentheses
after the fact.
Someone in his family-his great-great-
grandfather(?)-was the general during the War
of the Dancing Toads.

9. Quotation marks. (“ ”)
Put quotation marks around all the parts of a direct
quotation.
1. at the beginning of a sentence:
“Your homework for tomorrow is to build a medieval
castle out of sugar cubes,” said the history teacher.
2. in the middle of a sentence:
The history teacher said, “Your homework for
tomorrow is to build a medieval castle out of sugar
cubes,” and the class cheered.
3. at the end of a sentence:
The history teacher said, “Your homework for
tomorrow is to build a medieval castle out of sugar
cubes.”

4. that is split up in a sentence:
“Your homework for tomorrow,” said the history
teacher, “is to build a medieval castle out of
sugar cubes.”
Put quotation marks around the titles of:
songs: “My Old Kentucky Home”
chapters in a book: “The Neighbors from
outer space”
Poems: “The road Not Taken”
Speeches: “I Have a dream”

10. Semicolon. (;)
A semicolon looks like a period on top of a
comma.
Put a semicolon before certain conjunctions or
other connecting words and phrases that join
independent clauses in a compound sentence.
Carlos was rich; however, he took the subway
to work.
Ladi paid for the gas; therefore, she should get
to drive.

Punctuate the following sentences correctly.
1. tunde is traveling tomorrow
2. how long do we have to wait for the
commencement of the program
3. ann went to the market and bought tomatoes
magi onions groundnut oil and pepper for her
home economic practicals
4 adebayo has five children tunde joy kemi rita
kunle who are all in the same school
5. wow what a beautiful hat that is.
6. marys friend has travelled abroad
7. Paula unlike her sister is a good athlete

8. Aishat wrote to her mother in abuja, Here we
are materially well off, but spiritually deprived.
9. how do you want the money the banker asked
the man
10. Oh I forgot to return the borrowed book to the
library

Punctuation marks

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