CAPITAL LETTERS & PUNCTUATIONS

By Ms Choy Li Lee

Capital Letters (A, B, C….)

Example:The boy’s name is Ali.

We will go to Malacca in March.

Full stop / Period (.)

My name is Tan Li Ying.

He said, “The girl lives in Kuala Lumpur.”

Comma (,)

Mangose, rambutan, papayas and durians are some examples of Malaysian fruit.

When he opened the door, he saw a salesman standing outside, holding a box of washing powder.

Question Mark (?)

Do you know the meaning of this word?

Your birthday was yesterday, wasn’t it?

Colon (:)

The canteen sells a variety of food: rice, noodles, cakes and all sorts of titbits.

Can you spell these words: giant, business and calendar?

Semi-colon (;)

Please on hold; my father is coming.

Some oranges are sweet; others are quite sour.

Inverted commas/quotation marks(“ ”)

Mrs Ching said, “I brought this handbag for RM20.”

“What are you doing here?” asked the guard.

Inverted commas/quotation marks(“ ”)

“Thank you for helping me,” he replied.

The monitor shouted, “Boys, keep quiet!”

“Don’t touch that wire,” warned the electrician.

Apostrophe (’)

Mr Wong’s sonThe elephant’s tailThe ladies’ clothesThe soldiers’ uniformsRoss’ handbagAli and Abu’s parents.

Exclamation Mark (!)

I loved the play!The monitor shouted, “Boys, keep quiet!”

Help!

Ellipsis (…)

“The sight was awesome...truly amazing,“ he said.

“Let me check…I am sorry, I do not have the book that you wanted,” said the librarian.

Hyphen ( - )

Karen is his ex-girlfriend.

There are fifty-two playing cards in a deck. 

He lived to be one hundred twenty-one.

Dash ( -- or — )

An introductory paragraph is a brief paragraph that comes — yes, you guessed it — at the beginning of an essay.

This is the end of our story — or so we thought.