Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel, Sparkle
English, where I teach you how to improve your level of
English. My name is Jennifer, and I will be your teacher
today. So in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you about
periods, punctuation, and how to use spaces. This is a very
common error I see all over my channel. People don't know
when to use spaces, or how many spaces to use after they
put periods, exclamation marks, quotation marks, etc.
So let's start the lesson. So how many spaces do we use
after a period? Well, in the past, with a typewriter, we
would use two spaces. And that's because when you use a
typewriter, the typewriter allows the exact same amount
of space for each letter, whereas some letters are
bigger than other letters. And so it was difficult to tell
when you were actually putting a space. So to distinguish
between the sentences, using two spaces was better. And
that was the rule. So for example, with a typewriter,
you would have: I love your cat, period, space, space. How
old is it? It's raining period, space, space. Let's go
inside. And actually, when I was in high school, we had to
use two spaces after each sentence. And this was
something even in university they wanted us to do. However,
nowadays, the rule with all the style guides is that you
have to use one space. Unless you're writing on a
typewriter, do not use two spaces after a period, it is
no longer considered correct. Even on Microsoft Word, if you
type two spaces after a period, they will mark that as
incorrect. So you would write I love your cat, period,
space. How old is it? It's raining, period, space. Let's
go inside. So only use one space after a period. Now, how
many spaces do we use after other punctuation marks?
Again, just use one space. Will you marry me, question
mark, space. I'm in love with you. Should we order pizza,
question mark, one space. I'm hungry. Now with exclamation
marks. Wow. Exclamation mark. One space. That's a beautiful
painting. Be quiet exclamation mark, one space. We're trying
to listen to the movie. So after periods, question marks,
and exclamation marks, only use one space. Do not press
the spacebar twice. That is now considered incorrect. Note
that there is no space before the ending punctuation mark.
So this would be incorrect. I saw Jessica today, space,
period, space. She looked well. This is incorrect. I see
this mistake all the time in the comment section of my
videos. So you would write I saw Jessica today, period. One
space, she looked well. This is correct. Now how many
spaces do we use after quotation marks? So let's look
at this example. "We have a meeting tomorrow," my boss
said. We have the comma and then the closing quotation
mark. And there's no space between that, but then we have
a space. My boss said. "Is Dave upstairs?" Question mark,
closing quotation, one space, dad asked. Or if it's before
the quotation mark, Brad declared, comma, one space,
opening quotation mark, I will never speak to you again. So
there's either a space after the closing quotation mark or
before the opening quotation mark, but not two spaces, only
one. So there are some exceptions to this rule. Don't
use space before or after a decimal period between
numbers. So for example, she lost 3.5 pounds last month.
You don't add any spaces before or after this decimal
period or decimal point. Can I borrow $10.55. Again 10.55. A
magnitude 5.3 is a moderate earthquake, and a 6.3 is a
strong earthquake. Again no space before or after these
decimal points.
Another thing people have difficulty with is knowing how
to space initials in a name. Different style guides have
different rules on spacing between initials. Just
remember to be consistent. If you are doing an essay, then
make sure to follow the correct style guide. Otherwise
just be consistent. So let's look at these examples. The
Chicago Manual of Style, we have J. K. Rowling, J. R. R.
Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, you can see that we include a space
between the initials, so we have J, point, space, K,
point, space, and then Rowling. The same with J,
point, space, R, point, space, R, point, space, Tolkien. So
remember, this is the Chicago Manual of Style. The other way
you can do it is with the AP Stylebook where we don't
include a space between initials, so J, dot, K, dot,
space, Rowling, or J, dot, R, dot, R, dot, space, Tolkien.
So the only space is after the last point of the last
initial. So just make sure to be consistent if you want to
do it this way, or this way. And finally, ellipses and
spacing. I have a lesson all about ellipses. And again,
different style guides have different rules on how to use
spaces with ellipses. So with the Chicago Manual of Style,
you can see we have a space before and after each ellipsis
point. And with the AP Stylebook, we only have a
space before and after the ellipsis and no spaces between
each ellipsis point. So again, just be consistent. Now we're
going to have a quick quiz on spacing and punctuation. Are
these correct? So number one, watch out. someone is crossing
the road. Number two, do you want to go out with me? I
really like you. Number three, my favorite author is JK
Rowling. Number four, the pizza cost $12.45. Number
five, be careful. You might spill your coffee. Number six.
Have you read any books by LM Montgomery? Number seven,
don't speak to me again. He said. And finally number
eight. Can you come here? Mom asked. Okay, so let's correct
these together. Number one is incorrect. We have two spaces
after the exclamation mark. And remember, we only use one
space. So it should be watch out, exclamation mark, space.
Someone is crossing the road. Number two is correct. We have
one space after the question mark, and we only use one
space. Number three is incorrect. And can you tell me
why? Remember there are two ways we can write this. We can
write J.K. and then a space and then Rowling or J. K. and
then Rowling, but in this example there is no space
before the R so this is incorrect. We need to add a
space before the R. Number four is correct. You have a
decimal point, and we don't add spaces between the numbers
with decimal points. Number five is incorrect. We have one
extra space here. Remember that with the punctuation
mark, it has to go directly after the final letter in the
sentence, so we don't have a space here. Number six is
correct. You can write it like this L.M. Montgomery or L. M.
space Montgomery. Number seven is incorrect. We have an extra
space here. We don't add a space between the comma and
the closing quotation mark. You just have the space after
the closing quotation mark. And number eight is correct.
We have one space after the closing quotation mark. Okay,
so let me know in the comments section how many you got
correct out of eight. Let me know if you have any other
questions about spaces and punctuation. And make sure to
subscribe to my channel for more lessons just like this
one. I will see you in my next lesson.