Capitalization and Punctuation
Guide Signs for the English Language
Capitalization Rules pt. 1
 Capitalize proper nouns and words formed from
proper nouns
 People, countries, continents, cities, mountains, streets
 Capitalize names of particular things
 Organizations, calendar days, historical events, languages, and
official classes
 Capitalize proper adjectives
 American money, British tea
Capitalization Practice
 The river jordan flows south from lebanon into the dead sea.
 The falkland islands lie about three hundred miles east of the strait of
magellan in the atlantic ocean.
 We strolled along pennsylvania street in indianapolis, indiana.
 The great barrier reef along the coast of queensland, australia is the
largest coral reef in the world.
 The hwang ho river empties into the gulf of chihli, and the yangtze
river empties into the east china sea.
Capitalization Rules pt .2
 Capitalize titles when they are used before a name
 President Truman, Mayor George Freeman, Dr. Ben Jones
 Titles that follow a name or that are used alone are not
capitalized - i.e. Ahab the king, the senator, the president
 Capitalize family relationship words when they are used
before a name and when used in place of a name
 We saw Uncle Anthony at the store.
 What shall we buy Mother for her birthday?
 Her father is a baseball player.
Capitalization Rules pt .2
 Capitalize the titles of works like books, magazines, stories,
plays, and works of art
 The Man Who Would Be King, The Miami Herald
 Capitalize the first word of every sentence
 Capitalize the pronoun “I” and the interjection “Oh”
 Oh man, I am in trouble!
 Capitalize the first line in every line of poetry
 For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
Capitalization Practice
 each morning, the miami herald is delivered to
the school.
 we enjoyed the college production of the pirates of
penzance.
 That sculpture is a copy of the thinker by rodin.
 they have several general electric appliances at
their house.
 A water supply reservoir for pasadena, california,
is formed by morris dam on the san gabriel river.
Punctuation pt. 1 : Using End Marks
 A declarative sentence ends with a period (.)
 One that makes a statement
 An interrogative sentence ends with a question mark (?)
 One that asks a question
 An exclamatory sentence ends with an exclamation point (!)
 One that expresses strong feeling
 An abbreviation ends with a period (.)
 Mr.
Dr.
Mrs. A.M.
B.C.
Punctuation Practice
 Who did you say that you were
 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes
 Watch out
 Ireland has a mild climate
 What are you doing here
 Be strong and of a good courage
 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.
Punctuation pt. 2: Using Commas
 Use a comma and a conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet) to
join two independent clauses.
 I looked for Bob, and he found me.
 Use a single comma to separate three or more items in a list
 Pride, stubbornness, and unbelief lead to ruin.
 I saw men running rapidly, breathing heavily, and perspiring
freely.
 Use commas to separate two or more adjectives preceding a
noun
 Laura seems to be a kind, generous, and considerate person.
Punctuation Practice: circle the conjunctions
and place the comma(s) where needed
 Draw closer to your friends and they will draw closer to you.
 I called you last night but you did not answer the phone.
 Grandfather is planning to visit next month but he will be staying




only five days.
We visited the White House the Capitol and Washington Monument
when we went to Washington D.C.
Red white and blue are the colors of the American flag.
An interesting story will include humor conflict suspense and
reality.
The young man worked long ate heartily and slept soundly.
Punctuation pt. 2: Using Commas
 Use commas to indicate nonessential elements in a sentence.
 A nonessential element is anything that can be omitted and the
remaining words will still mean what they were intended to mean.
 i.e. The Great Salt Lake, a large body of water, is located in Utah.
 Use commas to set off appositives
 An appositive is aw word or group of words that renames the noun.
 i.e. The Scottish Highlands, a desolate region, has magnificent
scenery.
 Use commas to set off direct addresses
 i.e. Mr. Smith, can you cover my class?
 Use commas to set off introductory phrases.
 i.e. In conclusion, after all was said and done we were still rich.
Comma Practice
 Nero an early Roman emperor persecuted the early church.
 The last great Saxon king was Edward the Confessor.
 The test pilot John H. Glen was the first American to orbit




the earth.
Charles Dickens aVictorian novelist wrote very long pieces.
Einstein a German genius formulated the theory of relativity.
Graphite one of the softest mineral is used to make pencil
lead.
My father’s brother James was born on July 4th, 1965.
Punctuation pt 3: Colons and Semicolons
 Semicolon
 Use a semicolon instead of a comma and a conjunction. Shows a close
relationship
 In 1991 the music world was shaken by a tragic event; the death of Freddy Mercury.
 I don't like him; not at all.
 Use semicolons between items in a series if the items themselves contain
commas
 Within the past three years, the Smiths have lived in San Diego, California; Great
Lakes, Illinois; and Jacksonville, Florida.
 Colon
 Use a colon before listed items
 Some good vacation areas are:Yosemite, The Great Smokies, and the Florida Keys.
 On our last vacation we traveled through four states: Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and
Nebraska.
 Use a colon between the hour and minute of a time reference
 8:00 A.M.
12:05 P.M.
4:30 P.M.
Decide where a semicolon or colon should be
placed in the following sentences.
 1. Ellen and Peter were pleased with the cocker spaniel puppy on
the other hand, they had really wanted a beagle.
 2. He looked up and down the columns of ads for the stations on
Woodland Avenue Jimmy’s Gulf, Ed’s Shell, Murphy’s Citgo.
 3. The entire family packed into the station wagon when we
arrived however, we realized we had left the cat and her kittens in
a box on the front porch.
 4. We knew we could get one of the neighbors to feed them for a
few days there was, for example Mr. Smith next door or Mrs.
Perez down the street.
 5. Mr. Monroe was mayor of the little town he was, in addition
the police chief, the dog catcher, and the postmaster.
Punctuation pt. 4: Using Quotation Marks
 Use quotation marks to enclose the exact words of a speaker. Do
not use quotations marks for a paraphrase.
 Philip Henry said, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
 Capitalize the first word of a direct Quotation.
 The quotation should be set off by a comma.
 End Marks always go inside the quotation marks.
 Colons and Semi-colons always go outside the quotation marks.
Quotation Practice
 An ancient German proverb says speech is
silvern; silence is golden
 Language most shows a man Ben Jonson said.
 That which we are capable of feeling said
Cervantes we are capable of saying
 Language was given us said Bovee that we might
say pleasant things to each other.
Using Apostrophes
 Use an apostrophe to form the possessive case of nouns.
 To form the possessive of a singular noun, first write the nouns then
add ‘s.
 Man’s hat
cow’s hoof
Charles’s theory
 To form the possessive of a plural noun, first write the plural form
then add ‘s
 Oxen’s yoke
firemen’s fund
 To form the possessive of a plural noun that ends in “S”, first write
the plural then add ‘
 Minks’ den gorillas cages
 Use apostrophes to show that letters or number have been
omitted from a word
 Won’t
can’t
it’s
‘84
you’re
Apostrophe Practice
Singular
Friend
Horse
Man
Tooth
Deer
Student
Enemy
Singular Possessive
Plural
Plural Possessive
Apostrophe Practice
 Rewrite each of the following expressions in the possessive case
 The ideas of everyone
 The worth of a dime
 The wings of eagles
 Shoes of Mark and Kelly
 The paintings of Thomas Eakins