Punctuation

[xianhua]

I'm currently using Lang 8 to post some journal entries. My entries always appear to get the message accross, but I keep getting complaints about my punctuation!

For example, 用中文写文章标点符号也重要啊！ I've searched on this website but only found guidance on punctuation in Chinese - which is beyond my current level. Does anyone know where I can find some guidance in English, or even better, provide a few basic pointers on punctuating Chinese?

[leeyah]

Have you read this?

& some simple pointers:

1)basically, Chinese comma (，) is larger than its Western counterpart. Chinese full stop is a small circle (。)

2) When the text is written vertically, the quotation marks 『』 and 「」 are used; but when the text is written horizontally both the above quotation marks and the English quotation marks, “” and ‘’, can be used.

3) In Chinese there are also book title marks《 》 & chapter marks〈 〉in English that would be quotation marks.

4) Sesame dot or 顿号 is the Chinese equivalent of serial comma., in the shape of a teardrop (、)

5) Partition sign 间隔 is a dot at the center of a character space: (‧)

6) Proper noun mark, 着重号 as underline beneath the noun. In vertical text the proper name mark is written as a line to the left of the characters.

百度Baike has explanations & examples for each. Yellowbridge has punctuation marks & here's additional translation of missing words in baike to help you browse through examples:

连接号 hyphen used to connect 2-3 parts of a compound word into a complete whole

着重号 mark of emphasis, used under characters to draw attention to certain words in the text

省略号 elipsis, indicating omitted part in a passage

[xianhua]

Many thanks for that helpful advice.

[meah*]

As far as I know「」and『』(not "") are just at all times amongst traditional Chinese characters, not just when writing vertically. Check out http://www.edu.tw/files/site_content/M0001/hau/h6.htm for more info (Ministry of Education R.O.C. Taiwan).