Punctuation Marks " ". ,

Punctuation marks are used to divide written or printed matter into sentences, clauses or phrases, etc.

Here we will look at use of capital letters, commas and speech marks. 

Capital letters and comma

Capital letters are used:

1.   

A comma is used to:

1.    

 

 

 

 

 

Agreement

Two words are said to be in agreement if one of the words must have the same: gender, case, number, or person as the other one.

Person (first (I, we), second (you) or third (she, he, they))

 

Key point to remember

Verbs must be in agreement with their subjects; adjectives with the nouns they qualify, etc.

Figure of speech: to have an open mind.

This means to be willing to consider new ideas and opinions. Not to have a set mind or be prejudiced or be one sided in one’s view.

Example: The traveller had an open mind about what he would find when he arrived at his destination.

'A' or 'An'

Word work

‘a’ and ‘an’ are articles.

Articles are a class of words which specifically identify a word as a noun and confirms that it is not a describing word or adjective. There are two types of articles: the definite article the and indefinite articles a and an. When the is used before a noun, it refers specifically to a particular noun e.g. the boy; a or an refers to a general class of the noun e.g. a baby could be any baby; whereas the baby refers to a particular baby.

When to use a or an before a word
 

Figure of speech: Play second fiddle

This means letting someone else take charge whilst you take an inferior or low position.

Example: Playing second fiddle to anyone was not in Princess Iyomon’s nature; she determined that she would put bossy Ozin in his place when they worked together on the project later that day.