Types of punctuation and symbols

There are many different types of punctuation marks and typographical symbols. We’ll briefly
touch on them now, but you can learn more about of these characters by checking out the
links in this list and also each section below:

1. Period
2. Question mark
3. Exclamation point
4. Comma
5. Colon
6. Semicolon
7. Hyphen
8. En dash
9. Em dash
10. Parentheses
11. Square brackets
12. Curly brackets
13. Angle brackets
14. Quotation marks
15. Apostrophe
16. Slash
17. Ellipses
18. Asterisk
19. Ampersand
20. Bullet point
21. Pound symbol
22. Tilde
23. Backslash
24. At symbol
25. Caret symbol
26. Pipe symbol

Period, question mark, and exclamation point

These three commonly used punctuation marks are used for the same reason: to end an
independent thought.

Period (.)

A period is used to end a declarative sentence. A period indicates that a sentence is

finished.

● Today is Friday.

Unique to them, periods are also often used in abbreviations.

● Prof. Dumbledore once again awarded a ludicrous amount of points to Gryffindor.

Question mark (?)

The question mark is used to end a question, also known as an interrogative sentence.

● Do you feel lucky?

Exclamation point (!)

The exclamation point is used at the end of exclamations and interjections.

● Our house is haunted!

● Wow!

Comma, colon, and semicolon

Commas, colons, and semicolons can all be used to connect sentences together.

Comma (,)

The comma is often the punctuation mark that gives writers the most problems. It has many
different uses and often requires good knowledge of grammar to avoid making mistakes
when using it. Some common uses of the comma include:

● Joining clauses: Mario loves Peach, and she loves him.

● Nonrestrictive elements: My favorite team, the Fighting Mongooses, won the
championship this year.
● Lists: The flag was red, white, and blue.
● Coordinate adjectives: The cute, happy puppy licked my hand.

Try out this quiz on the Oxford comma!

Colon (:)

The colon is typically used to introduce additional information.

● The detective had three suspects: the salesman, the gardener, and the lawyer.

Like commas, colons can also connect clauses together.

● We forgot to ask the most important question: who was buying lunch?

Colons have a few other uses, too.

● The meeting starts at 8:15 p.m.

● The priest started reading from Mark 3:6.

Semicolon (;)

Like the comma and the colon, the semicolon is used to connect sentences together. The
semicolon typically indicates that the second sentence is closely related to the one before it.
 ● I can’t eat peanuts; I am highly allergic to them.
● Lucy loves to eat all kinds of sweets; lollipops are her favorite.

Hyphen and dashes (en dash and em dash)

All three of these punctuation marks are often referred to as “dashes.” However, they are all
used for entirely different reasons.

Hyphen (-)

The hyphen is used to form compound words.

● I went to lunch with my father-in-law.

● She was playing with a jack-in-the-box.
● He was accused of having pro-British sympathies.

En dash (–)

The en dash is used to express ranges or is sometimes used in more complex compound
words.

● The homework exercises are on pages 20–27.

● The songwriter had worked on many Tony Award–winning productions.

Em dash (—)

The em dash is used to indicate a pause or interrupted speech.

● The thief was someone nobody expected—me!

● “Those kids will—” was all he managed to say before he was hit by a water balloon.

Test your knowledge on the different dashes here.

Parentheses, brackets, and braces

These pairs of punctuation marks look similar, but they all have different uses. In general,
the parentheses are much more commonly used than the others.

Parentheses ()

Typically, parentheses are used to add additional information.

● I thought (for a very long time) if I should actually give an honest answer.
● Tomorrow is Christmas (my favorite holiday)!

Parentheses have a variety of other uses, too.

● Pollution increased significantly. (See Chart 14B)

● He was at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting.
● Richard I of England (1157–1199) had the heart of a lion.
Square brackets []

Typically, square brackets are used to clarify or add information to quotations.

● According to an eyewitness, the chimpanzees “climbed on the roof and juggled

[bananas].”
● The judge said that “the defense attorney [Mr. Wright] had made it clear that the case
was far from closed.”

Curly brackets {}

Curly brackets, also known as braces, are rarely used punctuation marks that are used to
group a set.

● I was impressed by the many different colors {red, green, yellow, blue, purple, black,
white} they selected for the flag’s design.

Angle brackets <>

Angle brackets have no usage in formal writing and are rarely ever used even in informal
writing. These characters have more uses in other fields, such as math or computing.

Quotation marks and apostrophe

You’ll find these punctuation marks hanging out at the top of a line of text.

Quotation marks (“”)

The most common use of quotation marks is to contain quotations.

● She said, “Don’t let the dog out of the house.”

● Bob Ross liked to put “happy little trees” in many of his paintings.

Apostrophe (‘)

The apostrophe is most often used to form possessives and contractions.

● The house’s back door is open.

● My cousin’s birthday is next week.
● It isn’t ready yet.
● We should’ve stayed outside.

Slash and ellipses

These are two punctuation marks you may not see too often, but they are still useful.

Slash (/)

The slash has several different uses. Here are some examples:
 ● Relationships: The existence of boxer briefs somehow hasn’t ended the boxers/briefs
debate.
● Alternatives: They accept cash and/or credit.
● Fractions: After an hour, 2/3 of the audience had already left.

Ellipses (…)

In formal writing, ellipses are used to indicate that words were removed from a quote.

● The mayor said, “The damages will be … paid for by the city … as soon as possible.”

In informal writing, ellipses are often used to indicate pauses or speech that trails off.

● He nervously stammered and said, “Look, I … You see … I wasn’t … Forget it, okay.”

Typographical symbols

Typographical symbols rarely appear in formal writing. You are much more likely to see them
used for a variety of reasons in informal writing.

Asterisk (*)hh

In formal writing, especially academic and scientific writing, the asterisk is used to indicate a
footnote.

● Chocolate is the preferred flavor of ice cream.*

*According to survey data from the Ice Cream Data Center.

The asterisk may also be used to direct a reader toward a clarification or may be used to
censor inappropriate words or phrases.

Ampersand (&)

The ampersand substitutes for the word and. Besides its use in the official names of things,
the ampersand is typically avoided in formal writing.

● The band gave a speech at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Bullet Point (•)

Bullet points are used to create lists. For example,

For this recipe you will need:

● eggs
● milk
● sugar
● flour
● baking powder

Pound symbol (#)

Informally, the pound symbol is typically used to mean number or is used in social media
hashtags.

● The catchy pop song reached #1 on the charts.

● Ready 4 Halloween 2morrow!!! #spooky #TrickorTreat

Tilde (~)

Besides being used as an accent mark in Spanish and Portuguese words, the tilde is rarely
used. Informally, a person may use it to mean “about” or “approximately.”

● We visited São Paulo during our vacation.

● I think my dog weighs ~20 pounds.

Backslash (\)

The backslash is primarily used in computer programming and coding. It might be used
online and in texting to draw emoticons, but it has no other common uses in writing. Be
careful not to mix it up with the similar forward slash (/), which is a punctuation mark.

At symbol (@)

The at symbol substitutes for the word at in informal writing. In formal writing, it is used when
writing email addresses.

● His email address is [email protected].

Caret symbol (^)

The caret symbol is used in proofreading, but may be used to indicate an exponent if a writer
is unable to use superscript.

● Do you know what 3^4 (34) is equal to?

Pipe symbol (|)

The pipe symbol is not used in writing. Instead, it has a variety of functions in the fields of
math, physics, or computing.