Types of Punctuation

Full stop (.):

A full stop (or period) ends the sentence. All sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop. This is to clearly indicate where one sentence ends and another sentence begins. 

When you don’t end a sentence with a full stop, the examiner will not know where the sentence begins and where it ends.

Comma (,):

Commas add a pause within the phrase. They help separate the parts of the sentence to avoid confusion in the meaning. More details are later in this document.

She is an intelligent, beautiful, young woman.

Apostrophe ('):

An apostrophe can mean a few things.

They can indicate possession. This means something belongs to someone/thing. You can either use ’s or s’, depending on the noun is singular or plural:

Jonah’s painting is a spectacular one.

The headmaster took away the students’ ball.

They are used to create “contractions''. A contraction is when a word is shortened and is common with helping verbs in English. These are common in English, particularly in informal writing. On the B2 First exam, you can demonstrate that you understand the difference between formal and informal writing by using contractions in your letter (if it’s informal) and not on your essay.

Exclamation Mark (!):

People commonly overuse this punctuation. It is mainly used at the end of a sentence to emphasize the emotions of the writer. 

Tom, Look out!

What a mess!

Question Mark (?):

A question mark at the end of a sentence is used to ask a question. They are only used with direct questions (a question that begins with an inversion or that begins with a -WH word), and they are not used with embedded / indirect questions. 

Why does light travel faster than sound?