Welcome to a new blog by the EnglishBolo™ Learning Channel – learn spoken English and more! Know more punctuations to learn English!

In our last video, we talked about 4 punctuations: 

Full stops (.), comma (,), exclamation mark (!), and question mark (?). 

For more of these punctuations to learn English, click here. 

In this video, you will learn about: 

Semicolons, colons, hyphens, and dashes.

Let us begin!

1. Semicolon (;)

This is a semicolon. 

When do you use a semicolon?

When you want to join two sentences that have a close connection.

For example, “There are no eggs at home; I will go to the store.” 

2. Colon (:)

This is a colon. 

It is used after a sentence introduces a quotation, an explanation, an example, or a list.

For example, “My father says: ‘Enjoy today because it will be gone tomorrow.”

3. Hyphen (-)

This is a hyphen. 

Many times, hyphens are confused with dashes! 

But hyphens and dashes are different! 

When do you use a hyphen? 

You use it to join two or more words to make a term. 

There are no spaces between the hyphen and the words. 

For example: 

– Part-time 

– Back-to-back

– Family-owned 

Dash (–) or (––)

A dash is used to make different statements in a sentence. 

Let us explain: 

There are two types of dashes. 

An en dash and an em dash 

An en dash is two times longer than a hyphen. 

It is used to show a range or duration. 

When we read an en dash aloud, we say ‘to’ or ‘through’. 

For example:

“She was the CEO 2009–2019.” 

Here is another example:

“I have a 9:30 am–11:00 am class tomorrow.”

An em dash is three times longer than a hyphen. 

It can be used instead of a comma, colon, or bracket. 

It is used to mark the focus of the sentence. 

For example: 

“Please call his father –– Deepak Singh –– to the school. ”

Here, the focus is on the person, Deepak Singh.

Here is another example: 

“Chocolate and vanilla –– both ice creams taste good.” 

Here, the focus is on the flavours: chocolate and vanilla.

Know More Punctuations to Learn English 

We hope this helped! 

In the next video, we will explain these punctuations: 

brackets, apostrophes, quotation marks, and ellipsis.

To keep learning, download the EnglishBolo™ app today.

EnglishBolo™ Online Teacher Classes 

It is tough to find people to practise with.

But EnglishBolo™ gives you teachers to talk to!

The EnglishBolo™ 100-day program gives you 10 online teacher classes. 

Our expert teachers will make you confident in English speaking. 

Practise your English conversations with them. 

Learn while practising!  

You can join the class on your phone. 

Take the class whenever you have the time!

Your classes will be based on your schedule. 

You only need a strong internet connection, Google Chrome browser, and headphones. 

Improving your spoken English has never been easier.

Learn English with EnglishBolo™ 

EnglishBolo™ is a joint initiative of EnglishHelper and Schoolnet. 

EnglishBolo™ will help you speak confidently with practise lessons and teacher-classes. 

You can improve your spoken English.

Just do 15 minutes of daily practise.

Be a confident English speaker! 

Download the EnglishBolo™ app and learn anywhere, anytime!

For more fun and exciting tips on speaking English, follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!