Handbook – grammar rules explained. English Rules | Grammar Rules | Punctuation and Capitalization Rules. Grammar Rules | The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. Punctuation. 14 Punctuation Marks Everyone Needs to Know | Proofreading. Online Proofreaders. Online Proofreading Services. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Master them all and... well, you've mastered punctuation! 1. The Semi-Colon The semi-colon is an immensely useful punctuation mark for those who are looking to slam two slightly related clauses together into a single triumphant sentence. Semi-colons are most commonly used to merge two independent clauses. For example: There's a crocodile in the toilet. At present, the two sentences are separated by a full stop / period.
There's a crocodile in the toilet. If you were to insert a semi-colon in place of the full stop / period, the pause would be much shorter and the sentence would look like this: There's a crocodile in the toilet; he has a lot of hair growing out of his ears. The semi-colon serves to eliminate the pause between the two independent clauses and is therefore used instead of a conjunction, such as and, yet, but, or, nor, for and so. A semi-colon can also be used as a super-comma, to separate items in a long list. 2. 3. 4. 5.