How to use punctuation marks
Punctuation marks are used to make sense of phrases and sentences, they work to distinguish, delimit, give hierarchy at the syntactic level and help the reader determine what the main and secondary ideas within a paragraph are.
Without them, as he has tried on different occasions through various writings, reading comprehension would be difficult,
However there are many who do not clearly understand how to use them within a sentence, so at we explain in detail how they have used punctuation marks.
The full stop (.)
This punctuation symbol purn viram is used to separate two paragraphs that contain different ideas, it represents the end of an idea and the beginning of a new one.
For example:
María is a very gluttonous girl, sometimes everything can happen during the day eating. Once when we were at his house.
Period and followed (.)
It is used within the same paragraph to separate two different statements that nevertheless have some kind of connection, for example: «Maria ate in large quantities, I couldn’t stop watching her.
The comma (,)
This works to indicate pauses within the sentence, but it has several uses, the first of which is to list,
For example:
I bought a shirt, pants, and shoes.” It is used for clarifications, paragraphs, and extensions.
For example:
María, my niece, loves to eat” / “I love the color red, especially how it looks on my skin.” It is also used to give way to explanations,
For example:
I will have to go to the doctor because my stomach hurts a lot.” The Royal Spanish Academy defines the comma (Alpviram) as the “punctuation mark that normally indicates the existence of a brief pause within a sentence”.
For his part, Alex Grijelmo in his book: uncomplicated grammar, affirms that the comma is like a traffic guard who sends words down one road or another.
He separates some and joins others. On many occasions, the use of the comma is motivated by the taste or motivation of the author who decides to put it where he thinks it is necessary.
However, this can lead to misunderstandings. For this, there are some basic rules that you must use so that your text is better understood.
Basic rules for the use of the comma
- You must separate the connectors such as “however”, “therefore”, “therefore” etc., from the rest of the sentence by a comma. Example: He studied; however, he lost the exam.
- If in your text you use conjunctions like “but”, “although”, “nevertheless”, among others, write a comma before them. For example; Paula rested at home, although she went out to the movies in the afternoon.
- When you want to give additional information within a sentence, in order to better explain it, it must be enclosed in commas. Example: Yesterday, when I went out with Natalia, I saw José.
- Always write the comma when trying to get someone’s attention. Example: Beatriz, let me know when I have to deliver the workshops.
- You must write a comma whenever you are going to separate the elements of the same series.
Example:
Claudia went to the mall and bought a pair of shoes, two bags, three blouses, and gray pants.
The semicolon (;)
Represents in the sentence a pause greater than the comma, but less than the period and followed.
It is used to separate elements in an enumeration when there are complex explanations.
For example:
This is the plan, you will go first, from the left; we will go to the right and the third group in the middle.
In general, the use of this sign is subjective since it can almost always be replaced by the period and followed, so it will be at the discretion of the writer.
Of all the punctuation marks, the semicolon is the one with the greatest degree of difficulty.
Since its functions are not very clear when used in writing. For this reason, on many occasions.
What is done is to replace it with another sign, especially by the dot followed.
According to the spelling of the Spanish Language, the semicolon is responsible for separating units with autonomous meaning, being complete sentences or words, which sometimes include their own commas.
Indicates a pause greater than the one made in the comma and one less than the period and followed. When typed, the word that follows must be lowercase.
The quotation marks («)
Its use is simple, it is placed to open and close quotes, phrases, words, or sentences of an ironic nature, written in another language, or to make some kind of indication about that word. They can also be found in this graphic version («»).
A colon (:)
Works to pause and draw the reader’s attention to what follows, which should be related to the preceding sentence.
The parenthesis ()
Used to make some kind of clarification or to introduce a text within another.
Exclamation (!) And Question (? )
As their name indicates, these signs are used when it is necessary to introduce an exclamation or some type of question within the sentence.
It is important to remember that in Spanish the opening and closing must be included, a step that is sometimes obviated to use only the closing sign, as is done in English.
Capital letter
Capital letters are intended to give value to a proper name or to highlight an important word or phrase in the text.
On many occasions, we write them and use them according to the rules that we have been taught (after certain punctuation marks, at the beginning of a paragraph, in proper names).
However, it is important that you keep in mind that there are other equally important and significant when using them.
Names of certain geographic areas are capitalized, such as names of states, regions, districts, neighborhoods, and so on.
- Words that are to be highlighted in judicial and legislative documents of some importance are written completely in capital letters.
- Capital letters must always have an accent. Only acronyms do not have an accent.
- The points of the question mark and exclamation mark are valid for normal points and, therefore, the following is capitalized.
- When writing words that begin with chi or all in a sentence, only the first letter must be capitalized.
- You should also bear in mind that the days of the week and the months of the year are not capitalized. It is only allowed when they are part of historical dates.
