?English Punctuation Guide

Abbreviation

1. . full stop after a full sentence, do not put a space neither before full stop, or after one.
2. , comma has three functions: 第一種列舉 seperate items in a list, e.g. This house has two bedrooms, a large living room, two bathrooms, and a terrace.(記住在最后兩個事項之間加連詞and） 第二種在連詞前面加逗號 have a comma with certain conjunctions, including "and", "but", "so", and "or" 最后一種插入語，use a pair of commas to add non-essential information to your sentence.
3. : colons introduce exaples, explainnation, details, 可以舉例子的時候用，不要總是用like，e.g. Rapid urbanisation has led to mutiple problems(general ideas): congestion, air pollution and a shortage of affordable housing for families(details).
4. ; semicolon 分號 using a semicolon shows that your idea before and after the semicolon are connected, and do not need a conjunction and linking phrases. In addition, some linking words, like however, can be used with a semicolon. e.g.1 He is so stubborn; it is impossible to convince him to change his idea even a little.(Two sentences both talk one idea: his stubborn character.) e.g.2(semicolons with however) I do not regret it; however, I would do things differently if had another chance.
5. ‘ aspostrophes one is 縮寫比如I'm，or another is to show possesstion表示所屬關(guān)系
6. - hyphens make compound words(made of two or more other words), like 復(fù)合形容詞（six-hour）, 帶數(shù)字的（six-year-old), 帶前綴的（ex-, self-, and non-; ex-wife, self-control, and non-government), 前綴帶數(shù)字或者名詞(anti-violence, post-1950), 復(fù)合數(shù)字或者分?jǐn)?shù)（twenty-three, three-quarters)
7. dash, "-" have a space both before and after "-", 增添補充成分相當(dāng)于插入語，也就是雙逗號，所以插入語用雙逗號或者破折號根據(jù)個人習(xí)慣，在這里他建議插入語用破折號
8. ",' speech marks quoting what someone said 引用某人說的話， 引號前面可以用",",":"和什么都不用，只要前后保持一致就好。句號在引號的里面或者外面同樣也不重要，只要保持前后一致就好。 單引號可以指代單詞本省或者還可以表達(dá)諷刺，挖苦和懷疑的意思
9. （) parentheses, add some extra, non-essential information, 使用括號增加統(tǒng)計信息和數(shù)字是在圖標(biāo)寫作中常用的添加數(shù)字的方式， e.g. The percentage of under-30s doing regular excercise was lower(45%) than that of people over 45(52%).
10. ? question marks 問題的結(jié)尾用問號
11. ！ exclamation marks 感嘆號，最好不要用