Punctuation marks in the Russian language perform several functions. They replace intonation pauses and highlighting keywords, lowering / raising the voice, characteristic of oral speech. Depending on the purpose, they can be divided into several groups.
Signs at the end of a sentence
All punctuation marks have their own specific meaning. So, at the end of a sentence, either a period or an ellipsis,
interrogative and exclamation
marks , are put.
- The point is needed if the statement contains any message and is of a narrative character: "Today, the whole day, from morning to late evening, it was snowing heavily."
- The ellipsis indicates that the thought expressed in the proposal is not completed and requires continuation: "Tell me, please, could you ...".
- Question marks are put if the sentences contain the question: "Where do you still run?"
- Exclamation - when the statement contains an incitement to something or emotional richness: "Sanya, how glad I am to see you! Come here!".
Signs inside a sentence
The sentences use their punctuation
marks. This is a comma, semicolon, colon and dash, brackets. In addition, there are also quotation marks that can open and close an independent statement, and is also located inside an already created one. We put a comma in the following cases:
- With homogeneous terms of the sentence, separating them from each other: "Snowflakes above the ground swirl gently, smoothly, measuredly."
- When it serves as the boundary of simple sentences as part of a complex: "Thunder struck, and rain poured into a solid wall."
- Punctuation marks when separating participial and participial phrases: "Smiling, the boy spoke and spoke without stopping. His interlocutors, laughing heartily, were very pleased with the boy."
- If the sentence contains introductory words or plug-in constructions: "In my opinion, the weather should be restored soon."
- With the but, a, yes, and other unions, this punctuation punctuation mark is required: “At first I decided to go for a walk, but then changed my mind.”
The list of paragraphograms, of course, is far from complete. To clarify it should refer to the syntax textbooks.
The colon is affixed according to certain rules:
- It is used when summarizing the words: "Everywhere: through the rooms, in the corridor, even in the remote corners of the pantry and kitchen - colorful lights of garlands shone."
- In complex sentences, the colon is placed with explanatory relations inside its parts: "My friend was not mistaken with the predictions: heavy, low clouds were slowly but surely gathered in the west."
- In direct speech, one also must not forget about this punctuation mark: he separates the author’s words: “Having come close, the guy threatened to raise his eyebrows and said:“ Maybe we’ll leave? ”
A semicolon is written if the sentence is complex, non-union, and there is no close connection between its parts or each part has its own punctuation marks: "Meanwhile, it got dark; lights flickered here and there in the houses, streams of smoke ran out from the pipes, the smell was of preparing food" .
A dash is also placed in union-free sentences, or if the subject and predicate are expressed by a noun in the presence of the particle “this”, etc.: “Spring is the glitter of the sun, the blue of the sky, the joyful awakening of nature.”
Each pointogram has a number of nuances and refinements, therefore, for literate writing, you must always work with reference books.