# English in Use/End Marks

## Period

The period, or full stop, is used to mark an entire and independent
sentence, whether simple or compound.

### Distinct sentences

When a sentence, whether long or short, is complete in respect to sense,
and independent in respect to construction, it should be marked with the
period: as,

-   \"Every deviation from truth is criminal. Abhor a falsehood. Let
    your words be ingenuous. Sincerity possesses the most powerful
    charm.\"
-   \"The force of a true individual is felt through every clause and
    part of a right book; the commas and dashes are alive with
    it.\"---R. W. Emerson.
-   \"By frequent trying, Troy was won. All things, by trying, may be
    done.\"---Lloyd, p. 184.

### Allied sentences

The period is often employed between two sentences which have a general
connection, expressed by a personal pronoun, a conjunction, or a
conjunctive adverb: as,

-   \"The selfish man languishes in his narrow circle of pleasures. They
    are confined to what affects his own interests. He is obliged to
    repeat the same gratifications, till they become insipid. But the
    man of virtuous sensibility moves in a wider sphere of
    felicity.\"---Blair.
-   \"And whether we shall meet again, I know not. Therefore our
    everlasting farewell take.\"---Shak., J. C.

### Abbreviations

The period is generally used after abbreviations, and very often to the
exclusion of other points; but, as in this case it is not a constant
sign of pause, other points may properly follow it, if the words written
in full would demand them: as, A. D. for Anno Domini; Pro tem. for pro
tempore; Ult. for ultimo; i.e. for id est, that is;

-   \"Add., Spect, No. 285.\"
-   For \"Addison, in the Spectator, Number 285th.\"
-   \"Consult the statute; \'Quart.\' I think, it is, \'Edwardi sext.,\'
    or \'prim. et quint. Eliz.\'\"---Pope, p. 399.

## Note of interrogation

The eroteme, or note of interrogation, is used to designate a question.

### Questions direct

Questions expressed directly as such, if finished, should always be
followed by the note of interrogation: as,

-   \"Was it possible that virtue so exalted should be erected upon
    injustice? that the proudest and the most ambitious of mankind
    should be the great master and accomplished pattern of humility?
    that a doctrine so pure as the Gospel should be the work of an
    uncommissioned pretender? that so perfect a system of morals should
    be established on blasphemy?\"---Jerningham\'s Essay, p. 81.
-   \"In life, can love be bought with gold? Are friendship\'s pleasures
    to be sold?\"---Johnson.

### Questions united

When two or more questions are united in one compound sentence, the
comma, semicolon, or dash, is sometimes used to separate them, and the
eroteme occurs after the last only: as,

-   \"When---under what administration---under what exigencies of war or
    peace---did the Senate ever before deal with such a measure in such
    a manner? Never, sir, never.\"---D. Webster, in Congress, 1846.
-   \"Cannot you, and honoured with a christian name, buy what is
    woman-born, and feel no shame; trade in the blood of innocence, and
    plead expedience as a warrant for the deed?\"---Cowper.
-   \"Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? All fear, none aid
    you, and few understand.\"---Pope.

### Questions indirect

When a question is mentioned, but not put directly as a question, it
loses both the quality and the sign of interrogation: as,

-   \"The Cyprians asked me why I wept.\"---Murray.

## Note of exclamation

The ecphoneme, or note of exclamation, is used to denote a pause with
some strong emotion of admiration, joy, grief, or other feeling; and, as
a sign of great wonder, it is sometimes, though not very elegantly,
repeated: as,

-   \"Grammatical consistency!!! What a gem!\"---Peirce\'s Gram.,
    p. 352.

### Interjections

Emphatic interjections, and other expressions of great emotion, are
generally followed by the note of exclamation: as,

-   \"Hold! hold! Is the devil in you? Oh! I am bruised all
    over.\"---Molière: Burgh\'s Speaker, p. 250.
-   \"And O! till earth, and seas, and heaven decay, never may that fair
    creation fade away!\"---Dr. Lowth.

### Invocations

After an earnest address or solemn invocation, the note of exclamation
is now generally preferred to any other point: as,

-   \"Whereupon, O king Agrippa! I was not disobedient to the heavenly
    vision.\"---Acts, xxvi, 19.
-   \"Be witness you, immortal Lord of all! Whose thunder shakes the
    dark aerial hall.\"---Pope.

### Exclamatory questions

Words uttered with vehemence in the form of a question, but without
reference to an answer, should be followed by the note of exclamation:
as,

-   \"How madly have I talked!\"---Young.
-   \"An Author! It is a venerable name! How few deserve it, and what
    numbers claim!\"---Id., Br. Po., viii, 401.

## References

-   A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain
    English grammar \"The Grammar of English
    Grammars\" by Goold Brown,
    1851.


