Learn Punctuation: period, exclamation mark, question mark

TRANSCRIPT

What is the purpose? A period ends a sentence. Seems simple enough, everybody knows this. Correct? But it's not that simple. Many, many times I've seen students writing and not putting the period in the correct place. What...

Another thing you have to remember about the period is what comes after it is always a capital letter. Okay? Many people forget the capital after a period. A period ends a sentence which means it ends a complete idea. Whatever comes after the period is already a new idea. Of course, one idea flows to the next idea; one idea builds on the previous idea, but they are two separate ideas. When you have completed your sentence, when you have completed your idea - put a period. And British people call this: "a full stop". Same idea, means: full stop, done, next idea. Okay? With a capital letter. Always don't forget the capital letter. Or never forget the capital letter. Okay?

Another thing to remember about the period is that once you have a sentence with a complete independent clause and you don't have another independent clause with a conjunction, "and", "but", "so", "or", etcetera or a semi-colon-this is a semi-colon-that means your sentence is finished. If you have two independent clauses in a sentence and you don't have the conjunction, you don't have the semi-colon, means you have a run-on sentence. Okay? A "run-on sentence" is a sentence that has two subjects, two verbs, no spacing, no conjunction, no period. Okay?

Let's look at an example of a run-on sentence.
"Stacey and Claire went shopping at the mall with Ted and Alex they bought new clothes."
Does this sentence seem okay to you? If it does, there's a problem. Okay? We have "Stacey and Claire" as your subject-sorry, this is a "v" actually-"went shopping at the mall". Where? "With Ted and Alex". With who? This is a complete idea. "Stacey and Claire went shopping at the mall with Ted and Alex." Your idea is complete, this is what they did.

Now, at the mall, what did they do? "They bought new clothes." I put a period, I put a capital. I have to separate ideas, therefore, two separate sentences. Now, is there any other way I can fix this? Of course. I can put a comma after: "Alex," I could put the word: "and they bought", in which case, that sentence is fine. "And" joins two independent.

So, every time you're writing... Punctuation, of course, is for writing, not for speaking; we don't see punctuation in speaking. Every time you write, check your sentences. If you have two independent clauses, means two subject, subject, verb, and then subject, verb. If you have two of these, two combinations of subject and verb without a period between them, without a conjunction, without a semi-colon - you have a run-on sentence. Okay?

Just to make sure, here's another sentence. I'll take this away. Something came before.
"As a result," -of whatever came before-"the police evacuated the tenants of the building they thought this would be safer."
Oh. "The tenants of the building they thought this would be safer." Wait a minute. What's going on? Where does the sentence end? Where does the idea end? What's the next part of the sentence? Okay? "The police evacuated". Who? "The tenants". Which tenants? "Of the building". Okay? "The building they thought this", no. Okay, "The building that they thought this", no, doesn't make sense. So this must be the next subject, "they thought". Who are "they"? The police. "They thought". What? "This would be safer." So now, I need to put something here. I need to break up these two sentences because they're two separate ideas. This sentence explains why they did the action in the first sentence.

[katarinae]

Thank you, Adam! This is very nice. This helps me to fix my writing about my punctuation.

[neonleon]

thank you sir. I appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to teach this to us. keep up the good work!

[raminziadi]

I'm Iranian.You are really such a nice teacher.Thanks a lot Adam.

[grbagejnki]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos!

[kar]

He deserve more subscribes! Everyone involved in helping us out by teaching us. Engvideos team should have more subscribes. Thank you very much Adam.

[mimyelmeky]

I did not understand from my teacher but I understood from you your teaching is very nice, and
It was a nice thing that you teaching English for kids, and some adults... Thank you much for teaching us 👏✌😁

[rebaz]

Very informative. I really like how you break down the sentences . And yes we call (period) a (full stop) . Hope to see more videos on your channel.

[lovehyekyosong]

Thanks Mr. Adam :)
I always appreciate your Engvids. They are very easy to understand and useful for me.

[zahri]

We never get too old to learn or keep refreshed. I am from the "old school" and I still love to be on point when writing. I really enjoyed watching this video to refresh myself. Very comprehensive, and the teacher in the video was awesome.

[hassanalelyani]

Thank legend, you helped me a lot, i have exam today and i could not understand it without... Greeting from SAUDI ARABIA ❤️

[DavidDiaz-zlje]

You are a good teacher, thanks for everything.He aprendido mucho con usted.Gracias

[pawday]

I'm from Karen, well learning from you

[thatrmah]

He made it easy to understand. I Wish he was my ESL teacher. Don’t you hate it when teachers make things more complicated than they really are?

[odumejefirstson]

I like the way you teach me how to no the meaning of punctuation thank you so much sir

[emerycabezas]

Thank  you .  Professor, for taken your time an teaching us , although   ,  I am  a computer engineer and  economics graduated  . your  are an excellent  teacher .   Thank you  very much

[carolinelackeyJCOTMlight]

im 20 and i am learning now before its to late.

[nimishasingh]

Thank you for the lovely lesson Mr.Adam.

[matheusgomeselt]

Man, nice class. Thanks a bunch for sharing your knowledge. I love your lessons!

[martaalvarez]

Excelent! Not everybody can explain these nuances so well.

[MA-zemg]

Thank you ADAM MAY GOD BLESSS YOU, YOU ARE SO PURE