| . | Period or Full-stop | Placed at the end of a sentence and many abbreviations. | I study English. He is Mr. Perez. |
| ? | Question mark | Indicates a question. | Are you hungry? Where do you live? |
| ! | Exclamation point | Adds emphasis and expresses surprise. | Help! That’s amazing! |
| , | Comma | Shows separation of ideas, lists of elements, and sentences. | I want to eat pizza, hotdogs, and ice cream. |
| , | Comma | Indicates a direct address. | John, can you come here? |
| , | Comma | Used to enclose details. | My friend, Marie, is French. |
| ; | Semicolon | Connects independent clauses. | He likes you; you are a good person. |
| ; | Semicolon | Separates items in lists that contain commas. | Last year I visited Salvador, Brazil; Lima, Peru; and Cancun, Mexico. |
| : | Colon | Introduces a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a series. | They play different styles: jazz, blues, R&B, and pop. |
| : | Colon | Between independent clauses, when the second explains the first. | I am moving to Japan: I was offered a job there. |
| : | Colon | For emphasis. | You have one option: do it. |
| — or – | Dash em dash — en dash – | Can be used in place of a comma, parentheses, colon, or brackets (em dash) | My friend — Marie — is French. |
| — or – | Dash em dash — en dash – | Indicates a range or connections (en dash). | I played basketball there from January – March. |
| - | Hyphen | Joins two or more words together into a compound term. | Tomorrow I’ll meet my brother-in-law. |
| - | Hyphen | Cannot be separated by spaces. | There are twenty-two students here. |
| [ ] | Brackets or Square Brackets | To clarify meaning. | Her cousin [Laura] worked with me. |
| [ ] | Brackets or Square Brackets | To add an editorial comment or missing words or letters. | He hate[s] cleaning the house. |
| [ ] | Brackets or Square Brackets | To add information. | Next month I am visiting two cities in Spain [Madrid and Barcelona]. |
| { } | Braces or Curly Brackets | To contain two or more listed items that are considered as a unit. Not common in writing. | I’m going to the supermarket to buy cereal, eggs, and fruits {bananas, apples, oranges}. |
| ( ) | Parentheses or Round Brackets | To contain further thoughts or remarks. | I was watching Friends (my favorite TV show). |
| ( ) | Parentheses or Round Brackets | To exemplify or clarify. | My friend (Marie) is French. |
| ( ) | Parentheses or Round Brackets | To define abbreviations. | MBA (Master of Business Administration). |
| ( ) | Parentheses or Round Brackets | To indicate plural and singular. | Please write the name(s) of your guest(s). |
| ’ | Apostrophe | Indicates omission of a letter or letters from a word (contractions). | ‘Cause he's tired. |
| ’ | Apostrophe | Possessive case. | We are going to our mother’s house. |
| ’ | Apostrophe | Plural of lowercase letters. | My keyboard is broken, I cannot type any o’s. |
| “ ” or ‘ ’ | Quotation mark | Marks the beginning and end of a passage, when repeated word by word. | “Don’t go there!”, he said. |
| “ ” or ‘ ’ | Quotation mark | Indicates meaning and the unusual (or dubious) status of a word. | What do you mean by “crazy”? |
| “ ” or ‘ ’ | Quotation mark | To cite titles or bibliographic references. | I read “Romeo and Juliet” for my literature class. |
| “ ” or ‘ ’ | Quotation mark | Single quotation marks are used for quotes within quotes. | She told me, “I read ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for my literature class.” |
| … | Ellipsis | Indicates an omission of letters or words. | Let’s count to ten: one, two, three... |
| / | Slash, Forward Slash, Virgule, or Oblique | Shows alternatives. | Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button. |
| / | Slash, Forward Slash, Virgule, or Oblique | Replaces the word “per”. | 100 km/hour |
| / | Slash, Forward Slash, Virgule, or Oblique | Fractions. | ½ pound |
| / | Slash, Forward Slash, Virgule, or Oblique | Separates lines in a song or poem. | Twinkle, twinkle, little star, / How I wonder what you are. |
| / | Slash, Forward Slash, Virgule, or Oblique | Internet websites or computer programs. | https://platzi.com/ |
