Capital letters are used:
1.    At the beginning of a sentence –

Alice is a good girl.
He is a clever boy.
She is very efficient.
They are coming.

2.    At the beginning of each line of poetry –
I am a teapot
Fat and Stout.
This is my handle,
And this is pout.

The colon (:)
The colon is almost always used after a complete sentence. It is used to indicate that what follows is an explanation of what precedes.
These are the things we need to buy: four chairs, one table, two fans and a mixer grinder.
The problem is this: which came first, the hen or the egg.
The conclusion we have arrived at is: if we want peace we must be prepared for war.

The term punctuation refers to the conventional system of marks used in writing. Punctuation marks are used to display and clarify the structure of the text. In this post we explain the uses of full stop, comma and semicolon.

Full stop

The full stop is used at the end of a statement or an imperative sentence.

Non-native students who want to study or work in English-speaking countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia are required to appear for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test. More than 6,000 universities/institutions across the world accept TOEFL score.

You can write your TOEFL essay on the paper or on computer. Remember that you have just 30 minutes at your disposal. During this short period you have to plan your essay and then write it.

Before you start writing

Read the following sentences:

They were playing in the garden.

He is very fond of his daughter.

She sat on the chair.

Adverbs should be placed as nearly as possible to the verbs they modify. Although some adverbs can occur only in fixed positions in a sentence, most adverbs can come at different places in a sentence.

Rule 1

When the verb intransitive (an intransitive verb has no object), place the adverb immediately after it.

A conjunction is a word used to join sentences or words. Examples are: and, but, for, yet, though, because, since, as, however etc.

Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions

Conjunctions can be divided into two broad classes – coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Read the following sentences:

Affect and Effect

Affect is a verb. It means ‘to act upon’ or ‘to pretend’. Effect is a noun. It means ‘to bring about’.

The cold climate affected his health.

The cold climate had an adverse effect on his health.

Amiable and amicable

Look at the italicized words in the following sentences:

John ran very fast.

The birds flew away.

Alice sang a song.

Here the words ran, flew and sang tell us what John, the birds and Alice do. These words are called verbs. A verb is a word which tells us what a person or thing is doing. Note that the verb is the most important word in a sentence.