Year 6 English · Semi-colons, colons, dashes, bullet points and hyphens · Summary
Year 6 English Semi-colons, colons, dashes, bullet points and hyphens: summary and key words
Part of the Year 6 English semi-colons, colons, dashes, bullet points and hyphens chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page
Chapter summary
| Skill | Method |
|---|---|
| Semi-colon | Joins two independent clauses that are closely related: It rained; the match was cancelled. |
| Colon | Comes after a complete sentence, and introduces a list or an explanation. |
| Dash | Marks a boundary between two clauses, with a space either side in UK writing. |
| Bullet points | Punctuated consistently: all fragments, or all complete sentences. |
| Hyphen | Shows what goes with what, avoids ambiguity: re-sign and resign; compound adjectives such as well-known. |
Can you…?
- I can join two independent clauses with a semi-colon
- I can use a colon after a complete sentence to introduce a list or an explanation
- I can use a spaced dash to mark a boundary between two clauses
- I can punctuate bullet points consistently
- I can use a hyphen to avoid ambiguity, and in compound adjectives
Key terms
- independent clause
- a group of words with a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence
- semi-colon
- a mark (;) that joins two independent clauses that are closely related
- colon
- a mark (:) that introduces a list or an explanation
- dash
- a mark (–) that marks a boundary between two clauses, with a space either side in UK writing
- bullet point
- a point in a list, shown with a symbol such as a dot
- fragment
- a phrase that is not a complete sentence
- hyphen
- a short mark (-) that joins two words
- compound adjective
- two or more words joined by a hyphen to describe a noun, such as well-known
- ambiguity
- when a sentence can be read in more than one way