13 Basic Punctuation Rules in English | Essential Writing Essential Series & Punctuation Guide — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hello everybody and welcome back to  my channel Sparkle English where I
2. 0:04teach you how to improve your level  of English. If you haven't already,
3. 0:08make sure to subscribe to my channel for more  ways on how you can improve your English writing,
4. 0:13grammar, and speaking skills. Today's video is  going to be an overall basic punctuation video as
5. 0:21part of my English writing essential series. This  video is going to talk about 13 basic punctuation
6. 0:28rules that you need to know to get started  writing in English. I have videos on how to use
7. 0:34each punctuation mark individually, so make  sure to check the description below if you
8. 0:39want a more in-depth video on one of these  punctuation marks. So let's get started.
9. 0:46Rule number one, every declarative sentence  must end with a period or a full stock.
10. 0:53For example, she loves chocolate,  period. He is my best friend, period.
11. 1:02My dad wants to go to a restaurant for dinner,  period. We have a meeting in two hours, period.
12. 1:10So for every declarative sentence or statement,  you must end it with a period or a full stop.
13. 1:18Rule number two, capitalize the first letter of  a sentence. Examples, she loves chocolate. So you
14. 1:26can see we have to capitalize she. He is my best  friend. My dad wants to go to a restaurant for
15. 1:34dinner. We have a meeting in two hours. So always  capitalize the first letter of a sentence. When a
16. 1:43sentence ends with a question mark, a period, or  an exclamation mark, you would leave a space, one
17. 1:50space, and begin the next sentence with a capital  letter. For example, she loves chocolate. He
18. 1:58loves pizza. We have to capitalize he and leave  a space between the period or the full stop
19. 2:07and the next sentence. Rule number three,  capitalize proper nouns. So what is a proper noun?
20. 2:16A proper noun is a specific name for a common  noun. So for example, a common noun would be boy,
21. 2:24but a proper noun would be the name of a boy.  For example, David, we would not capitalize boy,
22. 2:32unless of course, it was the first letter of a  sentence, but we would capitalize the name David.
23. 2:39Common noun day... day is not capitalized. But  Friday is capitalized because it's a proper noun.
24. 2:47It's the name of a day. Month is a common noun;  July is a proper noun. Country is a common noun;
25. 2:57Canada is a proper noun, city, common noun,  New York, proper noun, ocean, common noun,
26. 3:06Atlantic Ocean, proper noun. Okay. So for  example, he is a boy; his name is David.
27. 3:15We would capitalize David because  it's a name, it's a proper noun.
28. 3:20The best day of the week is Friday. So you can  see day is the common noun. It's not capitalized,
29. 3:27but Friday is a proper noun, so it is  capitalized. My favorite month is July.
30. 3:35Rule number four. Do not use an apostrophe to  form a plural. Examples. This is incorrect. They
31. 3:44have two cars, a lot of people make the mistake of  adding an apostrophe to try to make this plural.
32. 3:52Another incorrect example. I love cats and  dogs. Both of these are incorrect. Correct
33. 4:00would be they have two cars, we just add the S at  the end to make it plural. I love cats and dogs.
34. 4:12Rule number five. Apostrophes are used for  contractions or to show possession. So for
35. 4:19example, I don't know is a contraction. Don't  is a contraction for do not. We can merge these
36. 4:31two words together and add an apostrophe to make  it don't. You're funny. You're is a contraction
37. 4:41for you are funny. So we use an  apostrophe to make a contraction.
38. 4:47He's in a bad mood. He's is a contraction for he  is. We also use apostrophes to show possession.
39. 4:58For example, Jack's new car is beautiful.  Jack's new car means the car belongs to Jack.
40. 5:07When we put an apostrophe s, it means that  the object belongs to this person here,
41. 5:16to the subject. My teacher's wife is really nice.  This means that the wife of a teacher, his wife.
42. 5:31Rule number six, every question or interrogative  sentence must end with a question mark. So if you
43. 5:38are asking a question, you have  to end it with a question mark.
44. 5:43Examples. Do you like pizza? Question mark. Are  you tired? Should we go to the cinema tonight?
45. 5:53All of these are interrogative sentences or  questions and must end with a question mark.
46. 6:00Rule number seven, use an exclamation mark at  the end of a sentence to express excitement,
47. 6:07strong emotion, or a sense of urgency. So this  is an exclamation mark, you look beautiful. When
48. 6:17we add an exclamation mark, we're expressing  excitement. Wow, you look beautiful! If we
49. 6:23ended this sentence with just a period, it would  be more like, you look beautiful. But when we add
50. 6:29an exclamation mark, it's showing excitement.  I am so excited! That was a terrible choice!
51. 6:38So we can use an exclamation mark to show  happiness and excitement. But also we can use it
52. 6:44when you're angry. That was a terrible choice! Be  careful or watch out! That is a sense of urgency.
53. 6:53We often use exclamation marks in imperative  sentences or commands. If a teacher says to
54. 7:00a student sit down, for example, you might  use an exclamation mark. For all of these,
55. 7:06you could also use a period. But when we use an  exclamation mark, it's showing more excitement.
56. 7:15Rule number eight, use commas to separate items in  a series of three or more things. For example, if
57. 7:24you said I bought coffee and tea, you do not need  a comma because this is just two different things.
58. 7:32But if we have a list of three or more things,  we use commas. I bought coffee, tea, , and milk.
59. 7:43Some people don't like to use this comma here,  the comma right before the conjunction in a list.
60. 7:49This is called the Oxford comma. And there's  a lot of people who like to use it and other
61. 7:55people don't like to use it. I do have a video  on the Oxford comma, which I will link to in
62. 8:01the description below. But I recommend  you use the Oxford comma, it makes things
63. 8:06more clear that you're talking about three  different items. Jake has been to India, Pakistan,
64. 8:15and China. Okay, so we use commas in a series  of three or more things to separate the items.
65. 8:25Rule number nine, use a comma to separate  independent clauses, which is a complete thought
66. 8:32or a complete sentence, when they are  joined by the following conjunctions:
67. 8:38for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A way to  remember this the conjunctions is FANBOYS.
68. 8:50If you can remember FANBOYS then you can remember  which conjunctions. Example, I want to go out
69. 8:58tonight, but I need to study. This is incorrect.  I want to go out tonight is a complete sentence.
70. 9:06It is an independent clause; it works by itself.  And I need to study is also an independent clause.
71. 9:15So when we join two independent clauses  together with a conjunction like but,
72. 9:21we have to add a comma before it. So I want to go  out tonight, comma, but I need to study. He is a
73. 9:31doctor and she is a lawyer. Again, these are two  independent clauses joined by a conjunction so we
74. 9:39have to add a comma before the conjunction.  He is a doctor comma, and she is a lawyer.
75. 9:48Rule number 10. Use a semicolon between  closely related independent clauses.
76. 9:56So we just talked about independent clauses...  something that's a complete sentence. For example,
77. 10:02I love coffee, you love tea, we can combine  these with a semicolon. You could also
78. 10:10separate this into two different sentences,  or add a comma and a conjunction. For example,
79. 10:18I love coffee, comma, and you  love tea, or I love coffee,
80. 10:26but you love tea. Or you could also separate  it into two different sentences ending,
81. 10:32I love coffee with a period and starting the next  sentence with you and capitalizing the letter.
82. 10:40The next example, Karen is a teacher, semicolon,  Susie is a nurse. Luigi doesn't like seafood,
83. 10:49semicolon, he prefers pasta. You can see that in  all of these examples. They are closely related
84. 10:57both of the independent clauses are closely  related, so we can connect them with a semicolon.
85. 11:06Rule 11, use a colon to introduce a list of  items. For example, they serve many types of food,
86. 11:15colon, Chinese, Indian and American. So here,  we have an independent clause right here.
87. 11:22They serve many types of food. And to join  this independent clause with this list here,
88. 11:30we can add a colon. There are three things  every child needs: education, food, and family.
89. 11:39The colon is connecting this list  here with the independent clause.
90. 11:48Rule number 12: use a hyphen to join two or  more words that serve as a single adjective
91. 11:54before a noun. Examples, well-known  author, kind-hearted woman,
92. 12:02brand-new television, chocolate-covered peanuts.  So we're trying to make an adjective combining
93. 12:11these two words. And this here is  a noun. So for example, brand-new,
94. 12:20we need both of these words, we need to  combine them both to make an adjective. Same
95. 12:26with chocolate-covered these are combined,  we're making an adjective with two words.
96. 12:32So we're going to add a hyphen to join  these words before a noun. And rule 13:
97. 12:40use a hyphen with compound numbers, you should  hyphenate compound numbers between 21 and 99.
98. 12:49Examples: twenty-one, eighty-three,  ninety-nine...Of course, you would not
99. 12:57hyphenate 20 because it's just a word  all by itself. But if you want to say 23,
100. 13:05then you would hyphenate 20 and three to make  a compound number. So in a sentence example,
101. 13:13I have ninety-nine problems.  She is thirty-two years old.
102. 13:20Okay, so now I have eight different sentences,  we're going to practice correcting these sentences
103. 13:26following the basic punctuation rules that I just  taught you. So I'm going to read through these
104. 13:32eight sentences, and I want you to write down  how we can correct them because all of them are
105. 13:38incorrect. Number one, My birthday is in December.  Number two, Patti loves cats. Shawn loves dogs.
106. 13:49Number three, I went to the supermarket and  bought cheese, eggs, and ham. Number four,
107. 13:56Luke is 27 years old. Number five. I want to go  to the beach, but I think it's going to rain soon.
108. 14:05Number six, are you angry? Number seven, we bought  two new cars. Number eight. You're a great guy.
109. 14:16Okay, so let's go through these and correct  them together. And the first sentence we have
110. 14:22two errors. First of all, we have to capitalize  m because it's the beginning of the sentence.
111. 14:29So this should be a capital M. My birthday is  in December. And we have to capitalize D because
112. 14:37December is a proper noun. It's the name of the  month we have to capitalize months. Number two,
113. 14:44we have two different options. Patty loves  cats. Shawn loves dogs. This right here is
114. 14:51a comma splice. A comma is not strong enough to  connect two independent clauses. So we can either
115. 14:59make this into a semi colon. Or we could add  a period and make it two separate sentences.
116. 15:08Number three, I went to the supermarket and  bought cheese, comma, eggs, comma, and ham.
117. 15:16Because we have a list of three or more things,  we need to separate the list the individual items
118. 15:24using commas. Number four,  Luke is 27 years old. Here,
119. 15:30we're going to add a hyphen between 20  and seven because it's a compound number.
120. 15:37Number five, I want to go to the beach,  but I think it's going to rain soon.
121. 15:42Well, here, we have an independent  clause, I want to go to the beach. And
122. 15:49I think it's going to rain soon. And both  of these are connected by a conjunction. But
123. 15:56a conjunction is not strong enough to combine  two independent clauses, we need to add a comma
124. 16:03before it. So I want to go to the beach,  comma, but I think it's going to rain soon.
125. 16:11Number six, are you angry? This is a question. So  we cannot end this in a period. It's a question.
126. 16:19Are you angry? Question mark? If the answer  was I am angry, we would end it with a period.
127. 16:26But this is a question number seven,  we bought two new cars. In this case,
128. 16:33we have used the apostrophe to make a plural.  And remember we don't do that. We would write
129. 16:40cars without the apostrophe to make it plural.  And the last one, you're a great guy. Here,
130. 16:49this is a contraction for you are a great guy.  So we have to add an apostrophe between you
131. 16:59and our E to make the contraction for you are  so let me know how many you got out of eight
132. 17:08correct in the comment section below. If you  have any difficulties about any of these,
133. 17:14or you found that one was more difficult than the  others, make sure to check the description below
134. 17:19for all the videos in my English writing essential  series. I tell you how to use periods, question
135. 17:27marks, exclamation marks, quotation marks, colons,  semicolons hyphens, every single punctuation mark
136. 17:34that you need to know how to use I have a video  on it in my English writing essential series.
137. 17:42So thank you guys once again for watching. If you  haven't already, make sure to like this video and
138. 17:48keep practicing your punctuation skills so  that you become a better writer in English.
139. 17:53Thanks for watching once again and  I will see you in my next video.