Sentence Punctuation

Try and read the following:

in the 1600s the French came and saw that the area was rich in fish and furs Nicolas Denys built a fur trading post at St. Peter’s Denys and his brother made good money when the fish and furs were sold back in France

It is hard to read and understand these lines because there is no punctuation. Sometimes when we speak, we pause between words or change our voices. We lower our voices at the end of our thoughts. We raise our voices at the end of questions.

When we write, we have to use punctuation because we cannot hear these changes. Punctuation lets us get more meaning from groups of words. Here are basic rules for punctuation: