Let’s eat Grandma!
Let’s eat, Grandma.
There is no doubt about it. Punctuation saves lives. A comma in the correct place would prevent Grandma from being eaten.
Punctuation also helps us with sentence structure, clarifies meaning and separates different ideas.
Ending a sentence
Full stops end a sentence. So do question and exclamation marks.
Taking a breath
According to Grammarly, the comma was the top punctuation mark most people are grateful for. Especially Grandmas.
Semicolons muddle people the most. Semicolons - ; - separate clauses that are related to each other but can stand on their own as well.
Colons are used before a list of an explanation.
Connections and breaks – dashes and hyphens
There are two kinds of dashes (-) which is called an endash. This is used to connect numbers or elements in compound nouns. For example, Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) or Olivia Newton–John.
An emdash, the size of the dash is about the size of the letter M, is used to separate clauses indicate a break in thought or sentence structure. For example, against all odds, Pete—the unluckiest man alive—won the lottery.
Hyphens create compound words. For example, he was a well-known photographer. They are also used in prefixes such as cruelty-free eggs.
Punctuation jokes
What’s the difference between a cat and a comma?
A cat has claws at the ends of its paws and a comma is a pause at the end of a clause.
Private. No visitors allowed.
Private? No! Visitors allowed.
An English teacher wrote these words on the whiteboard: "woman without her man is nothing". The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly.
The men wrote: "Woman, without her man, is nothing."
The women wrote: "Woman! Without her, man is nothing."