In this class, we will learn about punctuation marks in Mandarin Chinese. Although their function is very similar to that in Spanish, their form and some of the rules governing their use are different.
Key concepts
Before learning each punctuation mark, we need to understand two golden rules about how they are written in Chinese:
Uniform spacing: Unlike Western punctuation marks, Chinese punctuation marks take up the same amount of space as a full character. This is because all characters are the same size.
Text orientation: In Chinese, text can be written horizontally or vertically. Punctuation marks change their position depending on the direction: for example, quotation marks are rotated 90 degrees in vertical writing.
Glossary of punctuation marks
It is essential to know the names of these punctuation marks in Mandarin:
Full stop (jù hào): 句號 / 句号
Comma (dòu hào): 逗號 / 逗号
Enumeration comma (dùn hào): 頓號 / 顿号
Colon (mào hào): 冒號 / 冒号
Semicolon (fēnhào): 分號 / 分号
Question mark (wènhào): 問號 / 问号
Exclamation mark (jīng tàn hào): 驚嘆號 / 惊叹号
Quotation marks (yǐn hào): 引號 / 引号
User guide and examples
The point (。)
In Chinese, a full stop is not used; instead, a small circle is used that takes up the space of a single character. It is used at the end of simple or complex sentences.
请你帮我买一份报纸。
Please help me buy a newspaper.
The Comma (，) vs. the enumeration comma (、)
This is one of the most significant differences from English:
The standard comma (，): It is placed in the middle of the line and is used to separate clauses or indicate pauses within a sentence.
The list comma (、): It is a short stroke that runs from top left to bottom right. It is used exclusively to separate items in a list.
喜、怒、哀、乐、爱、恶、欲，叫做七情。
Happiness, anger, sadness, joy, love, hate and desire are known as the seven passions.
Punctuation marks similar to those in English (： ； ？ ！) The colon, semicolon, question mark and exclamation mark are used in the same way as in Western languages.
Quotation marks (「 」 o “ ”)
In Simplified Chinese, Western-style quotation marks (“ ”) are commonly used.
In Traditional Chinese, specific symbols are used (「…」). If there is a quotation within a quotation, double quotation marks (『…』) are used within the single quotation marks (「…」)
Evaluation
Quiz
