Hello and welcome to the English Language Clinic. This week I have been asked to explain the meaning of the adjective ?punctual?. If you have arrived at the arranged time, you have been ?punctual?. In a more general sense, if you always arrive at the arranged time, you are a ?punctual? person. Synonyms of ?punctual? include ?prompt? and ?precise?. The word ?punctual? comes from Latin ?punctus?, literally translated as ?point?, synonyms of which include ?dot? and ?mark?; this can be seen in another synonym of ?punctual?; ?on the dot?. This Latin ?root? (origin) can also be seen in the noun ?punctuation?.

?Punctuation? is the symbols used to separate written words into sentences; it gives us information about how to read words and about the author?s intended meaning. Here are the British English names of some of the most commonly used ?punctuation marks? (I have placed each ?mark? inside ?brackets? and divided them with ?commas?). (?) apostrophe, (;) semi-colon, (?) question mark, (-) hyphen, (!) exclamation mark, (,) comma, (()) brackets, (?) inverted commas, (.) full stop. (Although not technically a ?punctuation mark?, the (&) symbol is known as an ?ampersand?.) In American English ?brackets? are known as ?parentheses?, ?inverted commas? are called ?quotation marks? and the ?full stop? is referred to as a ?period?.

Sentences can be ?punctuated? and so can activities or situations. Used in this way, it means ?to interrupt at regular intervals?; for example ?My time at school was punctuated by a series of boring lessons on punctuation!?.

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