MARMARA UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FINE ARTS & SCIENCES

TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING (GERMAN
LANGUAGE)

Lecture: AMT 1110.1.0 Englisch II

Lecturer: Serra İlgi KARAKAŞ
Subject: Compare and Contrast English and Turkish Punctuation
Student: Onat Can POLAT
Student Number: 120819039
Deadline: June 25th, 2021
WHEN, WHERE AND HOW TO USE PUNCTUATION IN ENGLISH AND TURKISH

It has always been a challenging task to use punctuation marks correctly. Both in English and
Turkish we have similar problems about using punctuation in the right way. In academic
letters or in professional, it doesn’t matter where, wrongly using punctuation marks may seem
unprofessional and indecent. It takes practice to master them. It might seem easy at first
glance, but when writing a professional letter it is likely to make a mistake since there are a
lots of marks that you need to keep an eye on.

In my article, I have tried to show when, where and how to use punctuations marks in English
and in Turkish as mentioned in the title. In some of them I’ve experienced difficulties on
finding diffences. Nonetheless, at most I’d shown what is different and what is not and I tried
to list the situations to use that punctuation mark. This article may not be the most thorough
but it contains short and useful info about the punctuation marks in both languages. To make
myself clear, I didn’t use some situations in some marks, it is because I found them to be
excessive. The lists in this article are made out of points that I found to be the most useful.

1- A. Using full stop/period

Full stop ft h in American English „period“ is mostly used to end sentences. However,
there a some other things it can do.
a. It is used after titles in American English
E.g. : Dr. Polat, Cpt. Donovan

b. It is used for some abbreviatons

E.g. : a.m., p.m., etc.

c. Lastly, it can be used as a decimal point

E.g. : 1.39 meters, 5.341 Dollars

B. Using full stop/ period in Turkish

Same in English, full stop in Turkish can be used quite widely. To end declarative
sentences, after titles, after some abbreviations and as a decimal point are the some spots that
a full stop can be used in Turkish as in English. Since it is a whole different language with an
opposite structure to English, obivously, there are some other situations that you will be using
full stop, now let’s take a look at them:
 a. It is used in writing dates, between day, month and year
E.g. : 22.7.2022, 19.05.1919

b. It is used in stating time, between hour and minute

E.g. : 16.44, 00.12, 21.45

c. It is used to state ordinal numbers

E.g. : 1., 152., 4567.

2- A. Using comma
We use comma in ft hem show where to pause when reading, therefore we can surely say
that a comma is an important element of a sentence. Besides this importance, there are some
other situations where a comma helps us. I’ll explaining these situations not only in English
but also in Turkish.
a. It is used to separate a series of words
E.g. : First I went tot he supermarket, bank, city center and barber.

b. It is used to separate dates and years

E.g. : 11,23,2001, 2001, 2003

c. It is used after some certain words that may start the sentence
E.g. : Sure, you can sit with us. No, I don’t want you to go there.

B. Using comma in Turkish

No different than in English, comma in Turkish is also critical in some situations. Here are
some examples from Turkish structure.

a. It is used before and after the important part of a sentence

E.g. : Bu yaptığın, değerli ve özel, şeyi unutmayacağım. (EN: I’ll never forget this
special and valuable thing you had done.)

b. It is used for quotation in a sentence

E.g. : İstanbul’a yarın uçuşum var, dedi. (EN: I have a flight to Istanbul tomorrow he
said.)

3- A. USING CAPITAL LETTERS

There are a whole bunch of things that we can list on this one, but most ft hem are similar to
each other therefore I thought it would be a nice idea to shorten the list. Here are the situations
I picked:
a. It used for the personal pronoun ‘’I’’
 E.g. : I’m in love with this movie.
Do as I say, not as I do.

b. It is used for many abbreviations

E.g. : NATO, WWF, WHO

c. It is used for names of some vehicles

E.g. : the Titanic, the Black Pearl, the Orient Express

B. USING CAPITAL LETTERS IN TURKISH

Not just in English, in every language there are capital letters. Turkish is not an exception. In
some occasions it is used exactly like in English but not always. Here are the different
occasions that we use capital letters in Turkish:

a. It is used in poems, every line starts with a capital letter

E.g. : Söylesem tesiri yok
Sussam gönül razı değil
Fuzuli

b. It is used in names variated from proper pronouns

E.g. : Türkçülük (EN: Turkish nationalism)
İstanbullu (EN: Istabulite)

4- A. USING EXCLAMATION MARK

The exclamation mark is used to express astonishment or to emphasise a short, sharp
phrase. It obviously used largely in daily language which makes it an powerful element.
Let us see some examples of where and when to use it.
a. It is used to show astonishment
E.g. : Oh my lord! That is impeccable!
How on earth he did that!

b. It is used when emphasizing a point in the sentence

E.g. : No way! I am not! You cant blame me for something I didn’t do!

B. USING EXCLAMATION MARK IN TURKISH

There is no different ways to use exclamation mark in Turkish. That does not mean there
are less ways, there are still a lot. Let us check them out!
a. It is used to show astonishment
 E.g. : Yok artık! Sana inanamıyorum. (EN: No way! I cannot believe you.)
Şaka yapıyosun! Gerçekten bunu dedi mi? (EN: You have got to be kidding me!
She really said that?

b. It is used when emphasizing a point in the sentence

Sen, özellikle sen! Bunların hepsi senin yüzünden oldu!
(EN: You, especially you! All of this is your mess!)
Gelmişsin, hem de kardeşinle!
(EN: You came, with your sister!)

5- A. Using question mark

Main aim of a question mark is, clearly, to turn a sentence into a question sentence.
However both in English and Turkish there are some other purposes of it. Firstly, as
always I started with English. Let us look at some instances.
a. It is used to ask or pose a question
E.g. : Will you fancy a dinner tonight?
What do you think about my new outfit?

b. It is used for rhetorical questions

How many times do I have to tell you to not disturb me?
Do you realize how hard it has been for me?

c. It is used when expressing an uncertainty

There is 200(?) more miles we have to go.
The war took place between 1436-1442(?).

B. Using question mark in Turkish

In Turkish the job of a question mark is similar with English. One big difference is that in
Turkish if you’re writing a question sentence, you usually add ‘’-mı, -mi, -mu, -mü ’’ which is
basically an interrogative particle that turns the sentence into a question sentence. There are
few bits and bobs that I can show you in Turkish language about question mark. Let us see
them.

a. It is used to ask questions without a subject

E.g. : İsminiz?
(EN: Your name?)

b. It is used when being unsure about an information

Cuma günü saat 4’de(?) geliyormuş. (EN: She is coming at 4 p.m. on Friday, I guess.)
 6- A. Using colon

A colon usually declares an element or elements in a sentence, both in Turkish and English.
Just like in every other punctuation mark there are some other occasions that we should use
colon. Not a lot maybe, but there is some and I will be showing you that some. Let us see
what we got:

a. It is used to give the impressions of ‘’as follows, thus, which is’’

E.g. : There are three types of motorcycles: naked, cross, road

b. It is used when clarifying a statement

E.g. : A lion does not live for 20 years: A lions life span is around 10-15 years.

B. Using colon in Turkish

In Turkish the usage of colon is nearly the same with English. I would be wrong if I say that
there aren’t some differences, still I’ll be showing the occasions in Turkish.
a. It is used when giving an example
E.g. : Bazı farklı yazı türleri vardır: Hikaye, şiir, roman.
(EN: There are some different types of writings: Story, poem, novel.)

b. It is used to show a letter in a word will be spelled longer

E.g. : a:ile, i:cat, k:atil

c. It is used as the dividing mark

E.g. : 16:4, 100:5

7- A. Using semicolon
The semicolon is mainly used to join two independent clauses without using a conjunction
like and. Therefore it plays a huge role as a punctuation mark. When used properly it can
make a huge difference in the sentence. Enough exaggaretion, let us get right into the
examples.

a. It is used to connect independent sentences

E.g. : John is reading a book; Anne is playing with her doll

b. It is used to delete a conjunction from the sentence

E.g. : I went camping; stayed for 2 weeks
 B. Using semicolon in Turkish
In Turkish it also plays a huge role as a punctuation mark. When used properly it can make a
huge difference in the sentence as in English without further ado let us see the examples!

a. It used before conjunctions

E.g. : Problemi çözdüm; ama süre dolmuştu.
(EN: I solved the problem but time was up.)

b. It is used to separate different groups of word

E.g. : Patlıcan, kereviz, lahana; tavuk göğsü, kıyma, domuz eti
(EN: Aubergine, celery, cabbage; chicken breast, minced meat, pork

8- A. Using dash

Dash is a punctuation mark used to separate a word from an independent clause. It is not
over with this. Dash itself separates to two different types. We will be handling both of
them. First the ‘’en dash’’.

a. It is used to show ranges of time, dates, etc.

E.g. : I’m an average man, I work from 9—5

A.1 The em dash

a. It is used to show emphasis

E.g. : You are –clearly—out of your mind.

B. Using dash in Turkish

It works just the same as in English. It is used in many context including: novels, newspaper,
articles, etc. Hence, we can clearly say that a dash is a critical punctuation mark in Turkish.

a. It is used between numbers to show range

E.g. : Salonda 4-5 kişilik yer var.

(EN: There is room for 4 or 5 in the conference room.)

B- A. Using diagonal/slash
 The slash has several uses in English. It is mostly avoided in formal writing. It may
not be used oftenly as the other punctuation marks but when necessary it is for your
own good to use it. Also as a quick tip, you can never use backslash instead of a slash.
Let us see the areas we can use slash:

a. It is used as ‘’per’’

E.g. : He was going at least 90 mp/h.

Back in the day, I was earning $250/week

b. It is used as ‘’and’’ or ‘’or’’

E.g. : You can do it honey, just be calm/steady.

Every candidate either he/she is accepted.

B. Using diagonal/slash in Turkish

Using a slash in Turkish language is no different than in English. Therefore there is

not a lot to report about this punctuation mark.

CONCLUSION

I have come to the conclusion: When, where or how you use a punctuation mark might differ
in Turkish and English but from a wider perspective I realized that every mark we use in both
language serve to the same aim and that aim is to make your letter more decent, more
effective and most importantly more clear. Even though from time to time we suffer from
those marks, both as English and Turkish speaking communities, we must get better and
better at punctuation. It is not a subject to underestimate. On the contrary every one of us
should be extra careful and sensitive about the right usage of punctuation marks in every-
except informal- letter. These little marks could be a life-saver in many situations. Don’t
forget to use them when you should.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.thoughtco.com

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/

www.anadilim.org

https://www.tdk.gov.tr

https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/index.html

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com

https://www.ef.com/wwen/

https://www.englishreservoir.com

https://www.englishclub.com

https://7esl.com

https://www.lexico.com/grammar