Beyond full stops and question marks, careful writing needs quotation marks for speech, a colon before a list, hyphens in doubled words and before capitals and numerals (se-Malaysia, ke-21, 1990-an), brackets for extra information, and commas to mark off parts of a longer sentence.
What your child will learn
- Punctuate direct speech
- Use a colon before a list
- Use hyphens with capitals and numerals
- Place commas after opening phrases and around extra information
Commas that organise a sentence
Put a comma after a name you are calling (“Aina, tolong…”), after ya, tidak and linking phrases such as oleh itu, and after an opening clause: “Walaupun penat, dia tetap menolong.”
A pair of commas fences off extra information: “Encik Tan, guru kelas kami, sangat penyayang.” In speech, the question mark or exclamation mark goes inside the closing quotation mark: “Bilakah kamu tiba?” tanya Rahim.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. Ayat yang manakah menggunakan koma dengan betul?
- Aina, tolong ambilkan buku itu.
- Aina tolong, ambilkan buku itu.
- Aina tolong ambilkan buku, itu.
- Aina tolong ambilkan, buku itu.
Show answer
Answer: Aina, tolong ambilkan buku itu.. Koma diletakkan selepas nama yang dipanggil.
2. Tanda baca yang manakah menunjukkan ayat yang tergantung atau terhenti-henti?
- noktah (.)
- tanda elipsis (…)
- tanda sempang (-)
- koma (,)
Show answer
Answer: tanda elipsis (…). Contohnya: “Saya… saya tidak tahu.”
3. Tanda kurung ( ) digunakan untuk…
- memisahkan suku kata
- mengakhiri ayat
- memberi keterangan tambahan
- menunjukkan soalan
Show answer
Answer: memberi keterangan tambahan. Contohnya: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP).
Tips for grown-ups
- Copy out two lines of dialogue from a storybook, minding every mark.
- Read a sentence aloud with and without its commas and hear the difference.