Full stops

• A full stop (.) shows that the sentence has ended.
• We use a full stop to show some abbreviations (example: e.g.), although these days many people don’t use full stops with abbreviations at all. Abbreviations that are written with the first and last letter of the word (as in Dr for Doctor and Mr for Mister) usually do not get a full stop. Other common abbreviations, such as ml (millilitres) and cm (centimetres) are also not usually shown with a full stop.

Question marks

• A question mark (?) shows that the sentence is a question.

Exclamation marks

• An exclamation mark (!) shows that someone feels strongly about something, for example, they feel fear, joy, worry, disbelief, sadness, etc. (Examples: Help me! Yay, I passed my exams! Watch out! That’s terrible!)
• In dialogue, they are often used with verbs such as ‘screamed’, ‘shouted’, ‘exclaimed’. (Examples: ‘That’s crazy! I can’t believe it!’ he exclaimed. She shouted, ‘Come quickly! We’re over here!’)