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the English language
Essential English punctuation
the briefest guide in the Universe
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A full stop ends a sentence.
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Commas indicate a short pause, or a place where you would naturally breathe. The comma in the previous sentence is optional, but the one in this is necessary or you would go blue in the face by the end. Do not disrupt the meaning of a sentence with unnecessary commas: be a comma minimalist.
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A colon indicates a longer pause than a comma and usually introduces an expansion or clarification of what has gone before, for example: this colon in this sentence, and the one in the sentence above.
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A semicolon is almost a full stop; you should be able to replace a correctly placed semicolon with a full stop without creating an ungrammatical sentence. It follows that there must be a verb in both parts of a sentence so divided.
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Apostrophes cannot be included in this section, because then it would not be brief.
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