First thing first, STOP punctuations are mainly five: a period ( . ), a question mark ( ? ), an exclamation mark ( ! ), a semi-colon ( ; ), and a comma + FANBOYS ( , for/and/but/or/yet/so ).We will dive into what these would look like below one at a time.<blockquote><h3>When is it needed to use any of these 5 STOP punctuation?</h3>Answer: When there are 2 complete sentences (independent clauses) coming together, you need to use a STOP punctuation in between them.</blockquote>You can remember it like this: You are STOPPING a traffic accident for 2 COMPLETE sentences!<blockquote><h3>What does comma + FANBOYS mean?</h3>Answer: These few combinations are also placed between 2 complete sentences:, for | , and | , nor | , but | ,or | , yet | , so</blockquote><h3>Let's check out some examples now!</h3>Example 1: Although some ESL teachers work abroad and speak the language of their host countries; those working in the US do not necessarily share a common language with their students.First, we have to identify if the 2 sentences are complete (independent) or not. And we can see that they are! You can check this out by taking either of the sentences out as a stand-alone sentence and see if they still make sense. If they do, then they are complete sentences and need a STOP punctuation (in this case a semi-colon) there.Example 2: An ESL teacher should not use her students' native languages to make her points. Since here students, want to learn English, she must encourage them to use it at all times.First, let's identify and see if the 2 sentences are complete, and they are! So, we know the drill! They will need to be separated with a STOP punctuation (in this case a period).Example 3: He became very hungry at the end, yet he continued working.As we can see, both sentences before the STOP punctuation ( , yet ) are both complete sentences. Thus, we can use any of the comma + FANBOYS combinations as STOP punctuations to separate the 2.

First thing first, STOP punctuations are mainly five: a period ( . ), a question mark ( ? ), an exclamation mark ( ! ), a semi-col...

Aneek Rahman

Punctuation: When to use STOP punctuation like Period, Exclamation mark, Question mark, or FANBOYS?