alpha Lernen - Englisch

Spelling & punctuation Essential punctuation rules

Von: Talitha Linehan

Stand: 14.11.2016

Commas in English are often used more to organize blocks of thought rather than following strict rules. But there are some:

When making a list, commas are used to separate one item from the next, also before the final "and" or "or":

Hats, pipes, and other possessions.

You use commas to enclose non-defining relative clauses and other non-essential details and comments:

Sherlock, who was born in Britain, liked sandwiches. However, they were not his favourite food.

No comma before "that":

I think that's easy.

We use hyphens in many compound adjectives:

computer-generated, good-looking, ...

There are no strict rules for most compound nouns:

paper clip / paper-clip / paperclip
if in doubt, use a hyphen.

We use an apostrophe to show possession:

Sherlock's favourite tea.

If the name ends with an -s we normally just add an apostrophe:

Holmes' friend Watson.

If the possession relates to a plural noun that ends in -s, we add an apostrophe after the -s:

a few months' time, the fans' website, ...

Don't mix up "it's", the short form for "it is" with "its", the possessiv pronoun.