Hello everybody and welcome back to my channel Sparkle English where I
teach you how to improve your level of English. If you haven't already,
make sure to subscribe to my channel for more ways on how you can improve your English writing,
grammar, and speaking skills. Today's video is going to be an overall basic punctuation video as
part of my English writing essential series. This video is going to talk about 13 basic punctuation
rules that you need to know to get started writing in English. I have videos on how to use
each punctuation mark individually, so make sure to check the description below if you
want a more in-depth video on one of these punctuation marks. So let's get started.
Rule number one, every declarative sentence must end with a period or a full stock.
For example, she loves chocolate, period. He is my best friend, period.
My dad wants to go to a restaurant for dinner, period. We have a meeting in two hours, period.
So for every declarative sentence or statement, you must end it with a period or a full stop.
Rule number two, capitalize the first letter of a sentence. Examples, she loves chocolate. So you
can see we have to capitalize she. He is my best friend. My dad wants to go to a restaurant for
dinner. We have a meeting in two hours. So always capitalize the first letter of a sentence. When a
sentence ends with a question mark, a period, or an exclamation mark, you would leave a space, one
space, and begin the next sentence with a capital letter. For example, she loves chocolate. He
loves pizza. We have to capitalize he and leave a space between the period or the full stop
and the next sentence. Rule number three, capitalize proper nouns. So what is a proper noun?
A proper noun is a specific name for a common noun. So for example, a common noun would be boy,
but a proper noun would be the name of a boy. For example, David, we would not capitalize boy,
unless of course, it was the first letter of a sentence, but we would capitalize the name David.
Common noun day... day is not capitalized. But Friday is capitalized because it's a proper noun.
It's the name of a day. Month is a common noun; July is a proper noun. Country is a common noun;
Canada is a proper noun, city, common noun, New York, proper noun, ocean, common noun,
Atlantic Ocean, proper noun. Okay. So for example, he is a boy; his name is David.
We would capitalize David because it's a name, it's a proper noun.
The best day of the week is Friday. So you can see day is the common noun. It's not capitalized,
but Friday is a proper noun, so it is capitalized. My favorite month is July.
Rule number four. Do not use an apostrophe to form a plural. Examples. This is incorrect. They
have two cars, a lot of people make the mistake of adding an apostrophe to try to make this plural.
Another incorrect example. I love cats and dogs. Both of these are incorrect. Correct
would be they have two cars, we just add the S at the end to make it plural. I love cats and dogs.
Rule number five. Apostrophes are used for contractions or to show possession. So for
example, I don't know is a contraction. Don't is a contraction for do not. We can merge these
two words together and add an apostrophe to make it don't. You're funny. You're is a contraction
for you are funny. So we use an apostrophe to make a contraction.
He's in a bad mood. He's is a contraction for he is. We also use apostrophes to show possession.
For example, Jack's new car is beautiful. Jack's new car means the car belongs to Jack.
When we put an apostrophe s, it means that the object belongs to this person here,
to the subject. My teacher's wife is really nice. This means that the wife of a teacher, his wife.
Rule number six, every question or interrogative sentence must end with a question mark. So if you
are asking a question, you have to end it with a question mark.
Examples. Do you like pizza? Question mark. Are you tired? Should we go to the cinema tonight?
All of these are interrogative sentences or questions and must end with a question mark.
Rule number seven, use an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to express excitement,
strong emotion, or a sense of urgency. So this is an exclamation mark, you look beautiful. When
we add an exclamation mark, we're expressing excitement. Wow, you look beautiful! If we
ended this sentence with just a period, it would be more like, you look beautiful. But when we add
an exclamation mark, it's showing excitement. I am so excited! That was a terrible choice!
So we can use an exclamation mark to show happiness and excitement. But also we can use it
when you're angry. That was a terrible choice! Be careful or watch out! That is a sense of urgency.
We often use exclamation marks in imperative sentences or commands. If a teacher says to
a student sit down, for example, you might use an exclamation mark. For all of these,
you could also use a period. But when we use an exclamation mark, it's showing more excitement.
Rule number eight, use commas to separate items in a series of three or more things. For example, if
you said I bought coffee and tea, you do not need a comma because this is just two different things.
But if we have a list of three or more things, we use commas. I bought coffee, tea, , and milk.
Some people don't like to use this comma here, the comma right before the conjunction in a list.
This is called the Oxford comma. And there's a lot of people who like to use it and other
people don't like to use it. I do have a video on the Oxford comma, which I will link to in
the description below. But I recommend you use the Oxford comma, it makes things
more clear that you're talking about three different items. Jake has been to India, Pakistan,
and China. Okay, so we use commas in a series of three or more things to separate the items.
Rule number nine, use a comma to separate independent clauses, which is a complete thought
or a complete sentence, when they are joined by the following conjunctions:
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A way to remember this the conjunctions is FANBOYS.
If you can remember FANBOYS then you can remember which conjunctions. Example, I want to go out
tonight, but I need to study. This is incorrect. I want to go out tonight is a complete sentence.
It is an independent clause; it works by itself. And I need to study is also an independent clause.
So when we join two independent clauses together with a conjunction like but,
we have to add a comma before it. So I want to go out tonight, comma, but I need to study. He is a
doctor and she is a lawyer. Again, these are two independent clauses joined by a conjunction so we
have to add a comma before the conjunction. He is a doctor comma, and she is a lawyer.
Rule number 10. Use a semicolon between closely related independent clauses.
So we just talked about independent clauses... something that's a complete sentence. For example,
I love coffee, you love tea, we can combine these with a semicolon. You could also
separate this into two different sentences, or add a comma and a conjunction. For example,
I love coffee, comma, and you love tea, or I love coffee,
but you love tea. Or you could also separate it into two different sentences ending,
I love coffee with a period and starting the next sentence with you and capitalizing the letter.
The next example, Karen is a teacher, semicolon, Susie is a nurse. Luigi doesn't like seafood,
semicolon, he prefers pasta. You can see that in all of these examples. They are closely related
both of the independent clauses are closely related, so we can connect them with a semicolon.
Rule 11, use a colon to introduce a list of items. For example, they serve many types of food,
colon, Chinese, Indian and American. So here, we have an independent clause right here.
They serve many types of food. And to join this independent clause with this list here,
we can add a colon. There are three things every child needs: education, food, and family.
The colon is connecting this list here with the independent clause.
Rule number 12: use a hyphen to join two or more words that serve as a single adjective
before a noun. Examples, well-known author, kind-hearted woman,
brand-new television, chocolate-covered peanuts. So we're trying to make an adjective combining
these two words. And this here is a noun. So for example, brand-new,
we need both of these words, we need to combine them both to make an adjective. Same
with chocolate-covered these are combined, we're making an adjective with two words.
So we're going to add a hyphen to join these words before a noun. And rule 13:
use a hyphen with compound numbers, you should hyphenate compound numbers between 21 and 99.
Examples: twenty-one, eighty-three, ninety-nine...Of course, you would not
hyphenate 20 because it's just a word all by itself. But if you want to say 23,
then you would hyphenate 20 and three to make a compound number. So in a sentence example,
I have ninety-nine problems. She is thirty-two years old.
Okay, so now I have eight different sentences, we're going to practice correcting these sentences
following the basic punctuation rules that I just taught you. So I'm going to read through these
eight sentences, and I want you to write down how we can correct them because all of them are
incorrect. Number one, My birthday is in December. Number two, Patti loves cats. Shawn loves dogs.
Number three, I went to the supermarket and bought cheese, eggs, and ham. Number four,
Luke is 27 years old. Number five. I want to go to the beach, but I think it's going to rain soon.
Number six, are you angry? Number seven, we bought two new cars. Number eight. You're a great guy.
Okay, so let's go through these and correct them together. And the first sentence we have
two errors. First of all, we have to capitalize m because it's the beginning of the sentence.
So this should be a capital M. My birthday is in December. And we have to capitalize D because
December is a proper noun. It's the name of the month we have to capitalize months. Number two,
we have two different options. Patty loves cats. Shawn loves dogs. This right here is
a comma splice. A comma is not strong enough to connect two independent clauses. So we can either
make this into a semi colon. Or we could add a period and make it two separate sentences.
Number three, I went to the supermarket and bought cheese, comma, eggs, comma, and ham.
Because we have a list of three or more things, we need to separate the list the individual items
using commas. Number four, Luke is 27 years old. Here,
we're going to add a hyphen between 20 and seven because it's a compound number.
Number five, I want to go to the beach, but I think it's going to rain soon.
Well, here, we have an independent clause, I want to go to the beach. And
I think it's going to rain soon. And both of these are connected by a conjunction. But
a conjunction is not strong enough to combine two independent clauses, we need to add a comma
before it. So I want to go to the beach, comma, but I think it's going to rain soon.
Number six, are you angry? This is a question. So we cannot end this in a period. It's a question.
Are you angry? Question mark? If the answer was I am angry, we would end it with a period.
But this is a question number seven, we bought two new cars. In this case,
we have used the apostrophe to make a plural. And remember we don't do that. We would write
cars without the apostrophe to make it plural. And the last one, you're a great guy. Here,
this is a contraction for you are a great guy. So we have to add an apostrophe between you
and our E to make the contraction for you are so let me know how many you got out of eight
correct in the comment section below. If you have any difficulties about any of these,
or you found that one was more difficult than the others, make sure to check the description below
for all the videos in my English writing essential series. I tell you how to use periods, question
marks, exclamation marks, quotation marks, colons, semicolons hyphens, every single punctuation mark
that you need to know how to use I have a video on it in my English writing essential series.
So thank you guys once again for watching. If you haven't already, make sure to like this video and
keep practicing your punctuation skills so that you become a better writer in English.
Thanks for watching once again and I will see you in my next video.