Language/Multiple-languages/Grammar/Punctuation-of-many-languages

Welcome to our lesson on "Punctuation of many languages"! 🌍

In this lesson, we will explore the fascinating world of punctuation across various languages.

Punctuation: it's more than just dots and lines. It's a tool that gives our words shape, adds rhythm to our sentences, and subtly conveys meaning beyond the words themselves. Yet, punctuation isn't the same in every language. It varies, reflecting the unique structures and styles of different languages.

This page is designed to provide you with references and offer comparisons of punctuation usage in various languages.

• Other related lessons: As you dive into this topic, you may also find it helpful to explore other related pages, such as TeKaMoLo in multiple languages, which can provide you with a deeper understanding of grammar rules in different languages. Additionally, you might be interested in learning about Multiple-languages Culture - Techniques for learning languages to enhance your language learning journey. And don't forget to check out Various word orders in various languages to further expand your knowledge of grammar structures across languages. Enjoy your exploration, and happy language learning! 😊

Symbol

The most common

Note: the followings are scripts instead of languages.

script	comma	full stop / period	question mark	exclamation mark	parentheses	colon	semicolon
Adlam	⹁	.	𞥟 … ؟	! … 𞥞	(…)	:	⁏
Arabic	، common ⹁ Sindhi	. common ۔ Urdu	؟	!	(…)	:	؛
Armenian	,	։	՞	՜	(…)	․	;
Bamum	꛵	꛳	꛷	!	(…)	꛴	꛶
Bengali Telugu Tamil Gujarati Gurmukhi Malayalam Kannada Oriya	,	। common . alternative	?	!	(…)	:	;
Burmese	၊	။ common ၏ when ends with a verb	း။	!	(…)	–	;
Cyrillic Georgian Hebrew	,	.	?	!	(…)	:	;
Devanagari	,	। common . Marathi	?	!	(…)	:	;
Greek	,	.	;	!	(…)	:	‧
Ge'ez	፣	።	፧	!	(…)	፥	፤
Han	，	。	？	！	（…）	：	；
Japanese	、 vertical; horizontal Jichishō standard ， horizontal Monbushō standard	。	？	！	（…）	：	；
Korean	, horizontal 、 vertical	.	?	!	(…)	:	;
Khmer	។	។	?	!	(…)	៖	;
Latin	,	.	? common ¿…? Spanish, Catalan	! common ¡…! Spanish, Catalan	(…)	:	;
Lisu	꓾	꓿	?	!	(…)	:	;
Medefaidrin	𖺗	𖺘	?	!	(…)	:	;
Mongolian	᠈ Manchu	᠉ Manchu	?	!	(…)	:	;
N'ko	߸	.	?	߹	(…)	:	;
Newa	𑑍	.	?	߹	(…)	:	;
SignWriting	𝪇	𝪈			𝪋	𝪊	𝪉
Sinhala	,	. new ෴ old	?	!	(…)	:	;
Thai	(none)	(space)	?	!	(…)	:	;
Vai	, new ꘍ old	. new ꘎ old	꘏	꘎꘎	(…)	:	;

Note:

• Punctuation in Han and Japanese are full-width
• Some symbols look the same, but they have different Unicode codes.

Quotation marks

language	primary	secondary	spacing
English, Great Britain and Northern Ireland Scottish Gaelic Welsh	‘…’	“…”	English: 1–2 pt Welsh: 1–2 pt
Afrikaans Chinese, People's Republic of China Dutch English, United States of America English, Canada Esperanto Filipino Hindi Interlingua Irish Korean, Republic of Korea Malay, Indonesia Maltese Portuguese, Brazil Spanish, Mexico Tamil Thai Turkish Urdu	“…”	‘…’	English: 1–2 pt Chinese: fullwidth Irish: 1–2 pt
Lao Vietnamese	“…”
Latvian	“…” „…”
Finnish Swedish	”…”	’…’
Bosnian	”…” „…”	’…’
Hebrew	„…”	‚…’
Serbian	„…”	’…’
Croatian	„…”	‘…’
Romanian	„…”	«…»	none
Polish	„…”	»…«
Hungarian	„…”	»…«
Czech German, Germany Icelandic Lithuanian Slovak Slovenian Sorbian	„…“	‚…‘
Bulgarian	„…“	’…’ ‘…’
Macedonian	„…“	’…‘
Albanian	„…“	‘…’
Estonian Georgian	„…“		Georgian: none
Amharic French, Switzerland German, Switzerland Italian, Switzerland Romansh Uighur	«…» ‏	‹…› ‏
French, France	«…» ‏	“…” «…»	¼ em
Basque Catalan Galician Greek Italian, Italy Occitan Portuguese, Portugal Spanish, Spain	«…» ‏	“…”	Catalan: none
Azerbaijani Belarusian Mongolian (Cyrillic) Russian Uzbek	«…» ‏	„…“	Russian: none Ukranian: none
Ukrainian	«…»	“…” ‘…’
Ido	«…» ‏	‘…’
Norwegian	«…» ‏	’…’
Arabic Armenian Kazakh Khmer Pashto Persian Tigrinya Uyghur	«…»‏		Arabic: optional
Mongolian (Mongolian)	《…》	〈…〉
Danish	»…« "…"	›…‹ ‚…‘
Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, Republic of China Japanese	「…」 「…」	『…』 『…』
Korean, Democratic People's Republic of Korea New Tai Lue Tai Le Tibetan	《…》	〈…〉
Lojban	lu … li'u

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark

Decimal separator

punctuation	.	·	,	٫
country or region	Australia Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Bangladesh Barbados Belize Benin Bermuda British Virgin Islands Botswana Brunei Cambodia Canada (English) Cayman Islands Democratic People's Republic of Korea Dominica Dominican Republic Egypt El Salvador Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Island Grenada Ghana Great Britain and Northern Ireland Guatemala Guyana Honduras Hong Kong India Ireland Isle of Mann Israel Jamaica Japan Kenya Lebanon Lesotho Libya Liberia Liechtenstein Luxembourg Macau (Chinese) Malaysia Maldives Malta Malawi Mexico Montserrat Myanmar Namibia Nepal New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Pakistan Palestine Panama People's Republic of China Philippines Puerto Rico Republic of China Republic of Korea Saint Helena, Ascencion and Tristan da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Singapore South Africa Sri Lanka Sudan Switzerland Tanzania Thailand The Bahamas The Gambia Togo Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands Uganda United States of America United States Virgin Islands Zambia Zimbabwe	Ireland Malaysia Philippines Republic of China Singapore	Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Argentina Armenia Aruba Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Benin Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cameroon Canada (French) Central African Republic Chad Chile Colombia Costa Rica Côte d'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Democratic Republic of Congo Denmark Ecuador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Faroes Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana Gabon Germany Georgia Greece Greenland Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Hungary Iceland Indonesia Italy Kazakhstan Kosovo Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lithuania Luxembourg Macau (Portuguese) Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Namibia Netherlands New Caledonia Niger North Macedonia Norway Paraguay Peru Pitcairn Island Poland Portugal Republic of Congo Romania Russia Rwanda San Marino São Tomé and Príncipe Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Suriname Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Timor-Leste Togo Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine Uruguay Uzbekistan Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam	Afghanistan Bahrain Egypt Iran Iraq Kuwait Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Sudan Syria United Arab Emirates

punctuation	.	,	٫
constructed language		Esperanto Ido Interlingua Volapük

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator

Digit group delimiter

punctuation	,	.	'	(space)
country or region	Bangladesh Canada (English) Democratic People's Republic of Korea Great Britain and Northern Ireland Hong Kong India Ireland Israel Japan Malaysia Malta Mexico New Zealand Pakistan People's Republic of China Philippines Republic of China Singapore Thailand United States of America	Argentina Austria Belgium (Dutch) Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Denmark Germany Greece Indonesia Ireland Italy Malaysia Netherlands Philippines Republic of China Romania Singapore Slovenia Spain Turkey Vietnam	Liechtenstein Switzerland	Albania Australia Belgium (French) Bulgaria Canada (English) Canada (French) Czechia Estonia Finland France Hungary Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Norway People's Republic of China Peru Poland Portugal Russia San Marino Slovakia South Africa Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Ukraine Vietnam

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_separator

Usage

Space

	to separate words	to separate sentences	to separate syllables
English French German	■
Thai Lao		■
Vietnamese			■
Chinese Japanese

Comma

	to separate a series of words, phrases or clauses	to form a compound sentence	to introduce a quote
English	■	■	■

Enumeration comma

	to separate words in a list
Chinese

Question mark

	to indicate a direct question
English	■
Japanese	□

Exclamation mark

	to indicate an exclamation	to indicate a command	to be used with imperative mood
English	■	■
German	■		■

Quotation marks

	to indicate direct speech	to indicate special meaning
English	■	■

Colon

	to indicate a series of words	to indicate description	to indicate explanation	to indicate definition
English	■	■	■	■

Semicolon

	to separate two series of words or phrases	to separate two closely related independent clauses
English	■	■

Hyphen

	to form a compound word	to connect letters in spelling	to connect groups of digit in a nominal number	to form an interrupted word
English	■	■	■	■

En dash

	to indicate a range of number		to separate two scores in a game
English	■		■

Em dash

	to further explain a word, phrase or clause	to express an opinion in a sentence
English	■	■

Wave dash

	to indicate a range of number
Chinese Japanese	■

Ellipse

	to indicate omission of quote	to indicate omission of a series of word	to indicate intermittent speech
English	■	■	■

Round brackets

English

Square brackets

English

Curly brackets

English

Angle brackets

	to indicate a title
Chinese

Lenticular brackets

Japanese

Hex brackets

	to indicate the serial number of an official document	to indicate the nationality or dynasty of the author
Chinese	■	■

Slash

English

Apostrophe

	to indicate omission of letters	to indicate possessive case	to separate morphemes	to indicate elision	to indicate a glottal stop	to indicate palatalisation or non-palatalisation
English	■	■

Interpunct

	to separate syllables in confusion	to distinguish specific graphemes	to separate words of foreign proper names	to separate a series of words
Catalan	■
Occitan		■
Japanese			■	■
Chinese			■

Musical note

	to indicate singing
Japanese	■

Other Lessons

• Exhaustive Inflection
• Use an Adposition or Affix
• Various word orders in various languages
• Common Mistakes
• Order of Adjectives
• Disjunctive questions
• TeKaMoLo in multiple languages