Punctuations
Comma (,)
Period (.)
Semi-colon (;)
Colon(:)
Introduces lists
Tag questions
Separate phrases, words, or clauses in lists
Use more than two adjective
Give more information
The girl, who sang at the concert, lived in that red house.
To interpret that song you need a guitar, piano, drums and a flute.
All my students are intelligent, punctual and very respectful.
My mom cooks the best soup, doesn't she?
Interjections
Yes, I will win the end game.
After some conjunctive adverb
Therefore, we should write a letter to the prime minister.
Mark the end of a sentence
Indicate an abbreviation
Ellipsis
Her son, Jack Jones Jr., was born on Dec. 14, 2012.
The Antarctic blue whale is the biggest animal in the world.
The boy was happy… at the start of his summer holiday
To join two connected sentences
The festival is very popular; people from all over the world visit each year.
In lists that already have commas
The three biggest cities in Ecuador are Guayaquil, Guayas; Quito, Pichincha and Cuenca, Azuay
To introduce a quotation
Introduces a second clause that expands the meaning of the first
He wanted to learn five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese.
My mother always said: "You only fail when you stop trying"
For emphasis
There was a quality that made him special: his faith.
I didn't have time to get changed: I was already late.
Gabriela López