Punctuation marks

Point (.)

The most common use of the dot is at the end of a sentence, when we have finished stating a complete idea.

 

-->Johnny grew up in Birmingham in the 1980s. (Johnny creció en Birmingham en los años ochenta.).

 

Comma (,)

There are people for whom eating is like breathing, as it acts as a pause in the sentence. Its most frequent uses are:

 To separate sentences (grammatical structure formed by a subject and a predicate), especially when they are joined by: "and, but, so, or, nor, yet o for"

 

-->I hadn't finished my homework, but I decided to go out anyway (No había terminado los deberes, pero decidí salir de todos modos).

-->Sally was feeling upset, and Romesh was not helping (Sally estaba molesta, y Romesh no ayudaba).

 

 Semicolon (;)

The semicolon is like the big brother of the comma. You can use it when you want to join two separate (independent) sentences that are related to each other, but between which no conjunction has been used.

 

-->I clean my teeth everyday; I don't want to end up with tooth decay (Me lavo los dientes todos los días; no quiero acabar con caries).

 

Two points (:)

We put two dots before we write lists:

 

-->For your English class, you will need: a coursebook, a pen, a notebook, and a good teacher (Para la clase de inglés necesitarás: un libro de texto, un bolígrafo, un cuaderno y un buen profesor).

 We also use them to connect two independent sentences, when the second one expands, explains or adds information to the first one:

 

-->She had always loved grammar: she owned multiple dictionaries and had verb lists all over the walls of her study (A ella le apasionaba la gramática desde siempre: poseía múltiples diccionarios y tenía listas de verbos en todas las paredes de su despacho).

 

Apostrophe (')

Many people make mistakes with the apostrophe, but the rules are pretty clear. The apostrophe is used for contractions:

 

-->Es la chica más lista del colegio → She's the smartest girl in the school (She's = She is).

-->Estaremos allí a las 7 de la tarde → We'll be there at 7 p.m. (We'll = We will).

-->¿No crees que el verano es mejor que el invierno? → Don't you think summer's better than winter? (Don't = Do not / summer's = summer is).

 

The other main use of the apostrophe is in the Saxon genitive, to indicate possession:

 

-->This is Dan's pencil case (Este es el estuche de Dan).

-->Leroy's jacket is brown (La cazadora de Leroy es marrón).

 

 Exclamation mark (!) and question mark (?)

The question mark in English always goes at the end of the questions, unless it is an indirect question that does not begin with an interrogative formula:

 

-->Ask in direct style: Where is the bank? (¿Dónde está el banco?).

  -->Ask in an indirect style with an interrogative formula: Would you mind telling me where the bank is? (¿Le importaría decirme dónde está el banco?).

 -->Question in indirect style:  I'd like to know where the bank is (Me gustaría saber dónde está el banco).

 

Be careful with the exclamation mark, as its use tends to be exaggerated, especially on social networks, where it is common to come across phrases like  “OMG!!! THAT IS AWESOME!!!”  In any formal writing, the exclamation mark should be used for only one thing: to exclaim, often in direct style:

 

-->''Hey!'' John shouted. "I'm here!'' (“¡Oye!”, exclamó John. “¡Estoy aquí!”).

complete the following picture by putting into practice what you have learned

Sacado de: 

https://www.britishcouncil.es/blog/signos-puntuacion-ingles