5. Punctuation

The most common punctuation marks in Chinese are listed below. Notice that punctuation marks also occupy a square of space just like a character and are centered in the square.

句號 geoi3 hou6 (。) is similar to a full stop in English.

逗號 dau6 hou6 (，) is similar to a comma in English that is used to separate clauses. Note that 逗號 dau6 hou6 is used between clauses much more often in Chinese.

頓號 deon6 hou6 (、) is similar to a comma in English that is used to separate items within one clause when there are more than two items.

問號 man6 hou6 is similar to a question mark in English.

冒號 mou6 hou6 is often used to introduce speech.

引號 jan5 hou6 is similar to quotation marks in English. It is often used to surround speech.

省略號 saang2 loek6 hou6 is similar to an ellipsis in English, but notice that 省略號 saang2 loek6 hou6 in Chinese has six dots and occupies two squares of space.