Punctuation Marks

Punctuation marks

The punctuation marks They are graphic marks that, without being numbers or letters, allow you to structure the paragraphs to give order to what you want to say. At the sentence level, they avoid ambiguities and, in many cases, help determine meaning. For instance: Maria studies. / ¿Maria studies? – ¡No, have mercy! / Have no mercy…

The main punctuation marks are:

There are also auxiliary signs (apostrophe, asterisk, bars, umlaut, script, braces, paragraph and accent mark) which, together with punctuation marks, make up the group of orthographic signs.

Use and examples of punctuation marks

POINT

Period followed. It is used to separate sentences that make up the same paragraph. After a period followed by writing on the same line:

• On Saturday, Mariana went to the market to buy a watermelon. Then she went back to her house and put it in the fridge.

New paragraph. Separate separate paragraphs and mark the change of mind. After the full stop, the writing must continue on the following line, in capital letters and with indentation:

• On Saturday, Mariana went to the market to buy a watermelon.
  The next day, she woke up very energetic and decided to visit her grandmother.

Final point. Indicates that the text has concluded in its entirety:

• And that's how Mariana enjoyed her weekend.

The period is also used after abbreviations and the initials of names and surnames:

• I spoke to Professor Dra. M. TO. Benavídez for you to review page. 17 of the manual.

EAT

It is used to separate elements within a statement:

• Mariana went to the market to buy a watermelon, bananas, apples and pears.
• Mariana went out to buy a watermelon, to wear a dress to the dry cleaner and to pay her children's college tuition.

It is used to limit sections:

• Mariana, the eldest of the sisters, she went to buy a watermelon.
• The market, which is very close to Mariana's house, sells a lot of watermelons.

It is applied to distinguish between possible meanings of the same sequence of words:

• Mariana already bought the watermelon, so that you stay calm. (The purpose of buying it was to give you peace of mind).
• Mariana already bought the watermelon so you can be calm. (I warn you that she already bought the watermelon in order to keep you calm).

SEMICOLON

It is used to separate the elements of an enum when dealing with complex constructions that already contain commas:

• Mariana's hair is brown; her eyelashes, long; her eyes, brown.

It is applied to separate syntactically independent sentences, but with a closer semantic link than that of the period followed:

• It's morning; the noise from the street intensifies; Mariana gets up from her bed.

It is used before certain conjunctions or locutions when the sentence is long and the conjunctions head propositions in which different aspects of the same idea are introduced:

• I wanted to travel a long time ago; however, she had never been presented with an opportunity like that.

It is used after each of the elements of a list when they are written on different lines:

• Mariana made the following list for the market:

- watermelon;
- tangerines;
- bananas;
- apples.

TWO POINTS

They are used before a verbatim quote or as a wake-up call:

• My grandmother always repeated: "Eye by eye, tooth by tooth".

They are used before or after an enumeration:

• My grandmother likes many things: traveling, sunbathing and shopping.
• Traveling, sunbathing and shopping: those are my grandmother's favorite activities.

They are written after the courtesy formulas in certain documents or letters:

• Dear mariana:
  I was delighted to see you at the market.

They are used between related sentences without nexus when expressing cause-effect or a conclusion:

• No need to rush: Mariana's party was called off.

SIGNS OF QUESTIONING AND EXCLAMATION

Question marks are used to mark the beginning and end of a question asked directly:

• ¿What time is it?
• If you already knew ¿why did you ask again?

Exclamation or exclamation marks are used in statements that express an intense feeling or emotion, or in interjections:

• ¡Oh!¡That hurt!

You can also combine the question and exclamation marks:

• ¿¡Why do you look at me like that!?

ELLIPSIS

They are used at the end of open enumerations, with the same value as the word etcetera:

• Mariana bought everything: watermelon, oranges, apples…

They are used when a sentence is left incomplete:

• Because as the saying goes, tell me who you hang out with…

They are written to express doubt or fear:

• I dont know…, we should see what the doctor tells them.

They are used to reproduce an incomplete quote. They are usually framed in parentheses or brackets:

• “Call me Ismael. A few years ago […] I thought I would go sailing around a bit, to see the aquatic part of the world ”.

STRIPE

It is used to insert clarifications in a speech (parentheses can also be used):

• I was waiting for Mariana —Patricia's older sister— for her to bring me what she bought.

They are used in the dialogues to indicate the change of interlocutor and to enclose clarifications and comments from the narrator:

• —Have you seen Mariana? —I asked Tobias.
  —No, I haven't seen her in the neighborhood for days —I answer the.

PARENTHESIS

They are mainly used to clarify or provide some additional information to the main text:

• I saw Mariana (Patricia's older sister, who we met at her birthday party), who was buying a watermelon at the market.
• Dr. M. TO. Benavidez (1932-2012) she was an illustrious doctor of our institution.

BRACKETS

They are mainly used to introduce additional information to a text that is already in parentheses:

• The latest work published by Dr. M. TO. Benavídez (called Anatomy of the Human Body [volume 3]) was a posthumous bestseller.

They are used when a part of the referenced text is omitted in a quote:

• “Every time I catch myself making a sad mouth; every time in my soul there is a wet and drizzly November […]So, I understand that it is more than time to go to sea as soon as possible ”.

They are used to introduce explanatory notes from the person who writes:

• There are other [novels like Moby Dick] of the adventure genre.

QUOTATION MARKS

They are used to highlight a word or phrase within a text, or indicate metalanguage:

• The word “to buy” is a verb.

They are used to frame verbatim quotes:

• Mariana only told me: “I'm going to buy a watermelon”.

They are used to reproduce the thoughts of the characters in a novel:

• “I will buy a watermelon at the market”Mariana thought and left.

Single quotes are used to frame the meaning of a certain word:

• Honoris causa literally means ‘for reason or cause of honor’.

They are written to indicate that a word or expression is improper, foreign, or used in a special sense:

• Mariana always goes to the market to buy fruit and, on her way back, she always stops by the “patisserie”.

In printed texts, it is recommended to use the angle quotation marks first, reserving the other types for when parts of an already quoted text must be quoted:

• «Mariana told me: “I'm going to buy a ‘water melon’”».

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