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Semicolon Goes Outside

The semicolon should be placed outside quotation marks. When the quoted matter ends with a semicolon, the semicolon is dropped. According to the editor, writers do make mistakes when "quoting from research sources"; they also use "too many quotations...

Colon Goes Outside

The colon should be placed outside quotation marks. When the quoted matter ends with a colon, the colon is dropped. The employee has two objections to the practice of "early retirement": He wants to continue working, and the policy manual does not re...

Question Mark Goes Inside

Sometimes the question mark goes inside the closing quotations marks. The committee asked, rather rhetorically, "Does this rule actually apply?" (Question mark that's part of the quotation goes inside. No additional punctuation is necessary to end t...

Question Mark Goes Outside

Sometimes the question mark goes outside the closing quotations marks. Did the board really say, "We will consider the rules on charitable contributions"? (Question mark showing the writer's question goes outside.)  Previous: Question Mark Goes ...

Exclamation Point Goes Inside

Sometimes the exclamation point goes inside the closing quotations marks. The man cried out: "Fire! There's a fire! Call 911!" (Exclamation point that's part of the quotation goes inside. Notice that no additional punctuation is necessary to end the ...

Exclamation Point Goes Outside

Sometimes the exclamation point goes outside the closing quotations marks. When 911 took the call, the operator said, "I'm on a break now"! (Exclamation point showing the writer's exclamation goes outside the ending quotation marks. No additional pun...

Conclusion to the Section on Punctuation

We hope you have enjoyed, and profited from, this discussion on the rules of punctuation. If you have, we hope you’ll tell your friends about Grammar.com.We hope you’ll use our eBooks and Grammar.com to improve your writing, check your grammar, c...

Glossary of Grammatical Terms

Here’s the Glossary of Grammatical Terms. Click any word for a complete definition along with examples. acronym, initialism action verb active voice adjective adjectival clause adjectival phrase adverb adverbial clause adverbial phrase antec...

acronym, initialism

An acronym is a pronounceable name made up of a series of initial letters or parts of words; for example, UNESCO for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.An initialism, on the other hand, is simply a set of initials r...

action verb

An action verb denotes physical, mental, or even emotional activity. The word run is obviously an action verb. But so is think.Every action verb is either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb is one that can attach directly to a noun (the di...

active voice

Every transitive verb can appear in one of two voices: the active voice or the passive voice.In the active voice, the grammatical subject of the sentence is the actor. Thus, in the following sentence, the actor is the subject of the sentence. The su...

adjective

An adjective is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a noun (a little girl) or a pronoun (he is strange). Single-word adjectives usually come before the word they modify (the red wagon). But when adjectives join a preposition to form w...

adjectival clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adjectival clause is a clause that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Note these adjectival clauses: on the street where she lives the book that arrived at the store t...

adjectival phrase

First, a phrase is any multiword group without a conjugated verb. Second, an adjectival phrase is a phrase that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. Usually, an adjectival phrase consists of an adjective and a prepositional phrase, such as free f...

adverb

An adverb is a word or group of words that modifies or describes a verb. Many one-word adverbs end in “-ly,” such as he ran quickly. Others, however, do not, such as he ran fast.Adverbs also modify or describe adjectives, such as the very tall ma...

adverbial clause

First, a clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Second, an adverbial clause is a clause that modifies or describes a verb. Note these adverbial clauses: He quit the race because he lost his energy. (Clause modifies quit.)Though he w...

adverbial phrase

Many phrases can act as adverbs and modify a verb, another adverb, or an adjective. A prepositional phrase can act as an adverb and modify a verb: In May, it often rains. A verbal phrase can act as an adverb: To scare the intruder, the homeowner bran...

antecedent

A pronoun takes the place of a noun. When writing, you'll use a pronoun and that pronoun will refer to some noun close by. That noun (the referent) is called the antecedent. The prefix ante might make you think that all antecedents come before the pr...

appositive

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that defines or restates another noun (or pronoun). Generally, the appositive follows the word it defines, as in My friend, Susan, came to dinner. But the appositive can also precede the noun it defines. Study t...

article

We have three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. The words a and an are indefinite articles, the word is a definite article.Use an when the word modified begins with a vowel or vowel sound, as in an apple or an hour.Use a when the word...

auxiliary verb

When you conjugate a one-word verb, you can form the present tense (he decides) and the past tense (he decided) with just one verb word. But when you go beyond the present and past tenses, you need an auxiliary verb, also called a helping verb, to co...

case

We have seven kinds of pronouns in the English language (personal pronouns, reflexive and intensive pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns).The personal pronouns (and ...

clause

A clause is a group of words with a conjugated verb in it. Clauses come in two types: (1) independent and (2) dependent. An independent clause is a full sentence, begins with a capital letter, and ends with a period or other full stop. A dependent ...

collective noun

A collective noun, also called a group noun, refers to a group of persons or things. Examples include group, number, majority, team, and many others.In American English, when individual members of the group noun act individually, you should use a plu...

comparative state

Modifiers—adjectives and adverbs—attribute qualities to nouns and verbs. When the modifier shows a greater quality, it appears in the comparative state.Usually, for adjectives, you form the comparative state by adding “-er” to the adjective, ...