Punctuation is the basic element of English grammar and without it, a sentence is not only incomplete, but also incomprehensible. There are various marks of punctuation that are used in sentences to give them more meaning and make it easier for the reader to understand them. If we omit these punctuation marks from a sentence, we will be left hanging. Another casualty of not using punctuation is that a sentence can have various meanings and the reader might assume a meaning other than the writer wishes to convey.
Today I will talk about the most common and most heavily-used punctuation mark i.e. period.
Denotation:
The punctuation mark period is denoted by a full stop or a small dot (.) in the English language.
Period:
A period is a small dot that is used at the end of sentences to indicate their completion. A period at the end of a group of words indicates that this marks the end of a sentence.
Example:
My cat is still hungry.
Placement:
A period is placed directly after the last letter of the last word of the sentence.
Notice in the above example, the period is placed right after the y of hungry.
A period is also used to indicate an abbreviation. Instead of writing the complete word, the first letter or first few letters of the word are written and end with a period.
Example:
a.m. and p.m.
e.g.
i.e.
etc.
If the sentence ends at an abbreviation, then one single period serves both purposes i.e. marking the end of a sentence and the abbreviation.
Example:
The bus will leave at 9 p.m.
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