7 (Simple) Punctuation Rules to Learn Once and For All

Writing for the web is a discipline in its own right. But before diving into advanced writing techniques, going back to basics can be useful: it'll save us from having to go back over dozens of texts later to make everything consistent. Let's review together a part of writing that's often mistreated: punctuation.

A ???? sentence ???? starts ???? with ???? a ???? capital ???? letter ???? and ???? ends ???? with ???? a ???? period.

Okay, I'm ready.

An ellipsis is three dots in a row. Simple, right?

Yet you frequently see people end their sentence with two dots ("And there's more.."), maybe thinking it softens the suspension effect.

Don't do that: it's ugly, it reads as hesitation, like a poorly committed statement, and it really doesn't look professional.

On the flip side, you sometimes see even more of them ("That's crazy....."), but mostly on Facebook. I won't even comment on that.

By the way, there's a single dedicated character for the ellipsis: …. You get it by typing ALT + . on a Mac or ALT + 0133 on Windows (I'll admit, they could have made an effort). You can also just copy this character and paste it wherever you like … (last-resort solution).

You should use it: outside of the fact that it's non-breaking (no risk of your line being cut off between the dots), it's also more correct from a grammatical standpoint.

As a reminder, the ellipsis is attached directly to the preceding word, with no space.

Careful, these are rules for the French language, they're different when writing in English (keep that in mind if you're writing translations!).

So in French: no space before periods . or commas ,

For punctuation marks made of two signs ( !, :, ;, ? ) you put a space before and after.

By the way, this will brainfuck you, but yes, "space" (espace) is feminine in French when it refers to a blank character, unlike its usual masculine gender. I'll try to keep using the correct gender for the rest of this article, hopefully I'll manage.

Certainly the rule I follow the least, but it's always good to remember it.

Always. So no stray s or x scattered here and there.

So you'd write "Mille deux-cent" and not "Milles-deux-cents".

Careful, I simplified this a little: once you start counting in millions and billions, you would indeed write "cinq millions" (with an s).

It's best to use non-breaking spaces to separate question marks ? and exclamation marks ! from the preceding word (a French typography convention).

A non-breaking space is a space that won't get cut at a line break, which saves you from having exclamation marks stranded alone on a line: either the preceding word joins it there, or they both stay together on the previous line.

To insert a non-breaking space in HTML code, all you have to do is replace your space with . Quick example:

So you write "5,60€" and not "5,60 €". And definitely not "5.50 €".

Your brand is a proper noun, so make sure to write it the same way everywhere.

What would it look like if, as you browsed this site, you saw "Startingup", "Starting Up", "StartingUP" instead of "StartingUp"?

Take a look at the marketing materials of some communication agencies, this kind of mistake is common.

The most common mistake in my opinion? How "WordPress" is spelled: half the time it's written "Wordpress", without the capital P. It's like writing "Cocacola" or "Macdonalds", it's sloppy and amateurish, and it's an easy way to spot the jokers in an industry.

Believe me, from now on you're going to see that one everywhere.

To go further, feel free to look into the Projet Voltaire, which lets you certify your good command of the finer points of the French language... An argument that can prove useful on a résumé or to demonstrate your credibility to future clients or partners.