The 15 Punctuation Marks in Order of Difficulty

The 15 Punctuation Marks. Comma Separates items in a list Separates coordinate In order of how much they do (and how hard they should be to learn) adjectives Separates coordinating conjunctions Separates dependent claus- es Separates conditional claus- Apostrophe es Separates appositives As single quotation mark, indicates Comes after quote within a quote introductory phrases Hyphen Omits letters and Comes after numbers interjections Colon Creates Comes after direct compound adjectives Creates a plural for a single letter Quotation address Mark Expands or clarifies a main Combines Makes a noun Comes after a title clause two-digit numbers possessive Indicates a direct Separates the day of the month from quotation Introduces lists Pluralizes a the year arifies verbs with common singular noun that ends in 's' Indicates a Comes after dictionary definition salutations Separates numbers larger prefixes Em Dash Makes Ellipsis Separates hours from minutes than 999 Joins prefixes to capitalized words abbreviations Indicates the Parentheses words on a sign possessive Expands with emphasis a main clause Separates titles from subtitles Separates cities from states Indicates an Creates plural possessions Brackets Suggests sarcasm or snarkiness Semicolon omission of words Suggest related but unnecessary information Joins a letter or in a quote a number toa Comes after Indicate editorial Indicates Separates and draws special Joins two related word Creates abbreviations i.e. comments by Highlights a word in a sentence dialogue in plays En Dash complete Indicates and e.g. compound possessions Asterisk someone other than the author sentences hesitating speech in dialogue attention to ideas Clarify a writer's frame of mind Joins a prefix to a date Period Comes before Question Mark Exclamation Replaces the word "through" or "to" when suggesting a Indicates short Suggests ratios Suggests a further comment, clarification or Separates list items when Suggests an inter- ruption in thought or change in quotations In headlines, used as a double quotation mark Mark Indicate asides or media pieces, like Suggests that something is being left out Separates words with same three Indicate citations other parenthetical information already in parentheses poems, songs, articles, and chapter titles commas are in Ends a sentence Ends a sentence Ends a sentence or page references flatly with curiosity with gusto qualifier duration of time the list items direction letters in a row TheVisualCommunicationGuy.com | 2014