All About Common Chinese Punctuation Marks

Chinese punctuation marks are used to organize and clarify written Chinese. Chinese punctuation marks are similar in function to English punctuation marks but sometimes differ in the form or look. All Chinese characters are written to a uniform size, and this size also extends to punctuation marks, so Chinese punctuation marks usually take up more space than their English counterparts. Chinese characters can be written either vertically or horizontally, so the Chinese punctuation marks change position depending on the direction of the text. For example, parentheses and quotation marks are rotated 90 degrees when written vertically, and the full stop mark is placed below and to the right of the last character when written vertically. Common Chinese Punctuation Marks Here are the most commonly used Chinese punctuation marks: Full Stop The Chinese full stop is a small circle that takes the space of one Chinese character. The Mandarin name of the full stop is Ã¥  ¥Ã¨â„¢Å¸/Ã¥  ¥Ã¥  · (jà ¹ hà  o). It is used at the end of a simple or complex sentence, as in these examples: è «â€¹Ã¤ ½  Ã¥ ¹ «Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¨ ² ·Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ » ½Ã¥   ±Ã§ ´â„¢Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¨ ¯ ·Ã¤ ½  Ã¥ ¸ ®Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¤ ¹ °Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ » ½Ã¦Å  ¥Ã§ º ¸Ã£â‚¬â€šQÇ ng nÇ  bÄ ng wÇ’ mÇŽi yÄ « fà ¨n bà  ozhÇ .Please help me buy a newspaper.é ¯ ¨Ã© ­Å¡Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã§  ¸Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ­Å¡Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¨ â„¢Ã¨   Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã§  ¸Ã© ¡Å¾Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ³ ¥Ã© ¡Å¾Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ© ² ¸Ã© ± ¼Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥â€¦ ½Ã§ ± »Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ± ¼Ã§ ± »Ã¨ â„¢Ã¨   Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥â€¦ ½Ã§ ± »Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã© ¸Å¸Ã§ ± »Ã£â‚¬â€šJÄ «ngyà º shà ¬ shà ²u là ¨i, bà ºshà ¬ yà º là ¨i; biÄ nfà º shà ¬ shà ²u là ¨i, bà ºshà ¬ niÇŽo là ¨i.Whales are mammals, not fish; bats are mammals, not birds. Comma The Mandarin name of the Chinese comma is é€â€"號/é€â€"Ã¥  · (dà ²u hà  o). It is the same as the English comma, except it takes the space of one full character and is positioned in the middle of the line. It is used to separate clauses within a sentence, and to indicate pauses. Here are some examples: Ã¥ ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"é ¢ ±Ã© ¢ ¨Ã¤ ¸ Ã¤ ¾â€ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥â‚¬â€˜Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥â€¡ ºÃ¥Å"‹æâ€"…è ¡Å'。å ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"Ã¥  °Ã© £Å½Ã¤ ¸ Ã¦  ¥Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¤ » ¬Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥â€¡ ºÃ¥â€º ½Ã¦â€"…è ¡Å'。Rà ºguÇ’ tà ¡ifÄ“ng bà ¹ là ¡i, wÇ’men jià ¹ chÃ… « guà ³ lÇšxà ­ng.If the typhoon does not come, we will take a trip abroad.ç  ¾Ã¥Å" ¨Ã§Å¡â€žÃ©â€º »Ã¨â€¦ ¦Ã§Å"Ÿæ˜ ¯Ã§â€ž ¡Ã¦â€°â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨Æ' ½Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ§Å½ °Ã¥Å" ¨Ã§Å¡â€žÃ§â€ µÃ¨â€žâ€˜Ã§Å"Ÿæ˜ ¯Ã¦â€"  Ã¦â€°â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨Æ' ½Ã£â‚¬â€šXià  nzà  i de dià  nnÇŽo, zhÄ“nshà ¬ wà º suÇ’ bà ¹ nà ©ng.Modern computers, they are truly essential. Enumeration Comma The enumeration comma is used to separate list items. It is a short dash going from top left to bottom right. The Mandarin name of the enumeration comma is é  â€œÃ¨â„¢Å¸/é ¡ ¿Ã¥  · (dà ¹n hà  o). The difference between the enumeration comma and the regular comma can be seen in the following example: Ã¥â€"Å"〠Ã¦â‚¬â€™Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥â€œâ‚¬Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¨â€šÃ£â‚¬ Ã¦â€žâ€ºÃ£â‚¬ Ã¦Æ' ¡Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¬ ²Ã¥  «Ã¥ Å¡Ã¤ ¸Æ'æÆ'…。åâ€"Å"〠Ã¦â‚¬â€™Ã£â‚¬ Ã¥â€œâ‚¬Ã£â‚¬ Ã¤ ¹ Ã£â‚¬ Ã§Ë† ±Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦  ¶Ã£â‚¬ Ã¦ ¬ ²Ã¥  «Ã¥ Å¡Ã¤ ¸Æ'æÆ'…。XÇ , nà ¹, Ä i, là ¨, à  i, à ¨, yà ¹, jià  ozuà ² qÄ « qà ­ng.Happiness, anger, sadness, joy, love, hate, and desire are known as the seven passions. Colon, Semicolon, Question Mark, and the Exclamation Mark These four Chinese punctuation marks are the same as their English counterparts and have the same usage as in English. Their names are as follows: Colon冒號/冒å  · (mà  o hà  o) - Semicolon - 分號/分å  · (fÄ“nhà  o) - Question Mark - å• Ã¨â„¢Å¸/éâ€" ®Ã¥  · (wà ¨nhà  o) - Exclamation Mark - é ©Å¡Ã¥Ëœâ€ Ã¨â„¢Å¸/æÆ'Šå  ¹Ã¥  · (jÄ «ng tà  n hà  o) - Quotation Marks Quotation marks are called Ã¥ ¼â€¢Ã¨â„¢Å¸/Ã¥ ¼â€¢Ã¥  · (yÇ n hà  o) in Mandarin Chinese. There are both single and double quote marks, with the double quotes used within the single quotes: ã€Å'...『...〠...〠 Western-style quotation marks are used in simplified Chinese, but traditional Chinese uses the symbols as shown above. They are used for quoted speech, emphasis and sometimes for proper nouns and titles. è€ Ã¥ ¸ «Ã¨ ª ªÃ£â‚¬Å'ä ½  Ã¥â‚¬â€˜Ã¨ ¦ Ã¨ ¨ËœÃ¤ ½  Ã¥Å"‹çˆ ¶Ã¨ ª ªÃ§Å¡â€žÃ£â‚¬Å½Ã© â€™Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã¨ ¦ Ã§ «â€¹Ã¥ ¿â€"Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¤ ºâ€¹Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ®ËœÃ£â‚¬ Ã©â‚¬â„¢Ã¥  ¥Ã¨ © ±Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ£â‚¬ Ã¨â‚¬ Ã¥ ¸Ë†Ã¨ ¯ ´Ã¢â‚¬Å"ä ½  Ã¤ » ¬Ã¨ ¦ Ã¨ ® °Ã¤ ½  å› ½Ã§Ë† ¶Ã¨ ¯ ´Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¢â‚¬ËœÃ© â€™Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã¨ ¦ Ã§ «â€¹Ã¥ ¿â€"Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¤ ºâ€¹Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥ Å¡Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ®ËœÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¨ ¿â„¢Ã¥  ¥Ã¨ ¯ Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¢â‚¬ LÇŽoshÄ « shuÃ… : â€Å"NÇ men yà  o jà ¬zhu Guà ³fà ¹ shuÃ…  de ‘qÄ «ngnià ¡n yà  o là ¬ zhà ¬ zuà ² dà  shà ¬, bà ¹yà  o zuà ² dà   guÄ n’ zhà ¨ jà ¹ huà  .†The teacher said: â€Å"You must remember the words of Sun Yat-sen - ‘Youth should be committed to do big things, not to make big government.’