Place either a period, an exclamation point, or a question mark at the end of each sentence.- She took a book from the shelf and began to read
- Do you like living in California
- She asked me if I know her brother
- Sit down and make yourself comfortable
- Shut up
- How many years were you in the army
- I can’t believe it’s storming again
- When did they arrive
- Watch out
- Her little brother is about eight years old
The commais the signal in the middle of a sentence that ideas are being separated. This can be
done to avoid confusing the ideas or to separate things in a list. For example, compare the sen-
tence “When he came in the house was cold.” to “When he came in, the house was cold.” You do
not mean that “he came in the house.” There are two ideas here in two clauses. They are sepa-
rated by a comma: (1) He came in. (2) The house was cold.As an example of a list, consider the sentence “He bought pop, tarts, and candy.” If you omit the
comma after pop, someone might think that he bought pop tarts.
In a list, there should be a comma after every item until you use the word and: a boy, a girl, two
dogs, and a cat. Some English writers prefer to omit the comma before and.I need paint, brushes, a yardstick, and some tape.
ORI need paint, brushes, a yardstick and some tape.Commas are also used to separate the name of a person to whom an imperative or a question is
directed:
Janelle, call Mr. Montoya on the telephone.
Dr. Gillespie, will my husband be all right?
Boys, try to be a little quieter.They are also often needed to separate two or more adjectives that modify a noun:She wore a red, woolen jacket.
The tall, muscular man was a weightlifter.exercise 12-1
Punctuation 6904 (062-076) Units 10-13 11/3/04 1:41 PM Page 69