The semicolon represents a pause of greater importance than that shown by a comma.

It is used: To separate the clauses of compound sentence, when they contain a comma.

He was a brave, large-hearted man; and we all honored him. She was determined to succeed whatever the cost; she would achieve her aim, whoever might suffer on the way.

The sun was already low in the sky; it would be soon dark. Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what

tomorrow we fear.

A colon is used to introduce a list of items: These are our options: we go by train and leave before the end of the show, or we take the car and see it all.

The garden had been neglected for a longtime: it was overgrown and full of weeds. (A semicolon or a full stop, but not a comma, may be used instead of colon here.)

Bacon says: Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready man.

The principal parts of a verb in English are: present tense, the past tense and the past participial.

A question mark is used:

At the end of a direct question:

Wheres the car? Youre leaving already? (A question mark is not used at the end of an indirect question) (He asked me if I was leaving.)

John Marston (?1575-1634)

An exclamation mark of (US) exclamation point is used at the end of a sentence expressing surprise, joy , anger, shock or some other strong emotions:

Thats marvelous!

Never! She cried

Afridi just pulled on triplets! Triplets!?

Inverted Commas are used to enclose the exact words of a speaker, or a quotations; as, I would rather die, he exclaimed, than join the oppressors of my country.
Baber is said by Elphinstone to have been the most adorable prince that ever reigned in Asia.

An apostrophe is used: With s to indicate that a thing or person belongs to somebody: My friends brother The waitresss apron King Jamess crown/King James crown The students books The womens coats.

Im (I am) Theyd (they had/ they would)

The summer of 89 (1989)

To form a compound from two or more other words;

Hard-hearted
Mother-in-law

Pre-Raphaelite Pro-European

Seventy-three Thirty-one

Co-operate Co-ordinate

A dash is used In informal English, instead of a colon or a semicolon, to indicate that what follows is a summary or conclusion of what has gone before:

Men were shouting, women were screaming, children were crying it was chaos. Youve admitted that you lied to me how can I trust you again?

He knew nothing at all about it or so he said.

A slash or oblique is used: To separate alternative words or phrases:

Single / married / widowed / divorced (delete as applicable)

Wordsworths famous lines, I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats on high oer vales and hills

Single quotation marks or inverted commas are generally used in British English:

Help! Im drowning!

Help! Im drowning!

Why on earth did you do that? he asked Ill fetch it , she replied.

He told me in no uncertain terms to get lost Thousands were imprisoned in the name of national

security.

Keats's Ode to Autumn

I was watching Prison Break.

A little learning is a dangerous thing.

(Brackets also called parentheses) are used:

To separate extra information or a comment from the rest of a sentence: Mount Robson (12972 feet) is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies.

Three dots (also called an ellipsis) are used to indicate

that words have been omitted, especially from a quotation or at the end of conversation: Challenging the view that Britain had not changed all that fundamentally.