End Punctuation:
* Period (.) Used to end declarative sentences, abbreviations, and some types of lists.
* Example: The dog barked loudly.
* Question Mark (?) Used at the end of interrogative sentences (questions).
* Example: Did you see the cat?
* Exclamation Point (!) Used to express strong emotion or emphasis.
* Example: Wow! That's amazing!
Internal Punctuation:
* Comma (,) Used to separate elements in a list, after introductory phrases, before and after parentheticals, and to separate independent clauses joined by a conjunction.
* Example: I went to the store, bought milk, and came home.
* Semicolon (;) Used to join two closely related independent clauses, or to separate items in a list that already contains commas.
* Example: I went to the store; I bought milk.
* Colon (:) Used to introduce a list, explanation, or a quotation.
* Example: I bought three things: milk, bread, and cheese.
* Dash (-) Used to set off an abrupt change in thought, to emphasize a phrase, or to indicate a range.
* Example: I tried to bake a cake – a disaster!
* Parentheses ( ) Used to enclose parenthetical information, or to set off numbers or letters in a list.
* Example: The cat (a tabby) was very friendly.
* Brackets [ ] Used to enclose explanatory information within a quotation, or to indicate an error in a text.
* Example: "He [the king] was a great ruler."
* Ellipsis (...) Used to indicate omitted words, phrases, or lines in a quoted passage, or to create suspense.
* Example: "I... I can't believe it..."
Other Punctuation:
* Apostrophe (') Used to indicate possession, contractions, or the plural of lowercase letters.
* Example: The cat's tail, I'm going, three a's.
* Quotation Marks (" ") Used to enclose direct quotations, titles of short works, and words used in a special sense.
* Example: "Hello," she said.
* Hyphen (-) Used to join words together to create compound words, or to indicate a word break at the end of a line.
* Example: well-known, break-ing
* Slash (/) Used to separate lines of poetry in a text, to indicate "or," or as a fraction.
* Example: The cat/and the dog.
Remember: Punctuation rules can be complex, and there are often stylistic variations. Consult a style guide or a good dictionary for more specific information.