Period (punctuation mark)

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.
Punctuation marks
Comma, comma ,
Semicolon, semicolon ;
Colon, colon :
Point .
Ellipsis ...
Focus ·
bullet point •
Question mark ?
Exclamation, exclamation, call signs !
Apostrophe, apostrophe '
- - Hyphen ; Hyphen ;
Supplementary line
Indent ; Up line -
quotation marks "" »«  /  «»
‚'› ‹  /  ‹ › 
Slashes / \
Brackets () []

The point ( ASCII value of decimal 46, hexadecimal 2E) is in the writing and in the typography including as punctuation used.

use

Periods as punctuation marks

  • The period ends a statement ; this can also be shortened:
    “Today the weather is nice . "
    "How do you find that? Good . "(=" I think that's good . ")
  • Three points in a row are so-called ellipses . B. can stand for omitted words in a quote
    "I am of the opinion ... "

Abbreviations and numerals

  • Abbreviations that are not pronounced as abbreviations are usually written with a point (s):
    u . (one speaks: "and")
    z .  B . (one speaks: "for example")
  • A point comes after ordinal words written with digits , e.g. B. for dates
    13 . December (= the thirteen th December)
    13 . 12 . 2010

Points as outline symbols

The point

  • is used in Germany and Austria to group digits with large numbers to improve readability
    100 . 000
    2 . 000 . 000 (= 2 million)
  • is used in Switzerland for prices
    Fri. 3 . 60 (but: 3.60 francs )
  • separates hours and minutes in times (a colon is also possible here)
    10 . 30 pm (or 10 : 30 pm )
  • is used when structuring texts in the numbers of the subsections
    Chapter 1 . 4 (read: one four)
  • is used in many (subject-specific) cases to structure character strings, e.g. B. with host names or IP addresses
    Host name: de . wikipedia . org
    IP address: 123 . 123 . 1 . 104

The point in statistical tables

According to DIN 55301 (design of statistical tables), the point stands for “numerical value unknown or to be kept secret” as a value-substituting symbol (in contrast to value-supplementing symbols, including quality indicators ). This is exactly how the symbol is used in tables of official statistics .

Official German spelling rules

Note: The rules are not quoted verbatim here. The paragraphs mentioned in the text are to be understood as a reference to the official regulations.

End point

(§ 67) The final point - and end of a sentence or short sentence point called - at the end of a whole sentence .

Mostly they are statements:

“West winds usually bring rain . “-“ It's raining today, but hopefully the sun will shine again tomorrow . "

A propositional sentence is also present in cases like these (the superordinate sentence is always a declarative sentence):

“The father ordered him to come back immediately . “-“ He asked me what my name is . “-“ She called to me to stop . "

After prompts that are spoken without emphasis, there is also a point:

"Please give me the book . " - "See. 17 EStG. "-" See page 3. "-" No call sign is to be set here. "-" You should be silent. "

Omitting the point

(§ 67 E3 and § 68) No point is set:

  • by name on business cards and in letterheads,
  • by addresses, headings,
  • according to book, article and newspaper titles and their independent parts, which are clearly highlighted anyway by the arrangement,
  • according to independent dates,
  • after signatures u. Ä.,
  • in a quoted sentence, unless it forms the end of the entire sentence (§ 92).

The abbreviation point

(§ 101 and § 102) Certain abbreviations are written with a period:

d .  h . - etc . - u .  like . - Dr .  med . - Univ . -Prof . - S .  9 - n .  Chr .

(§ 103) If there is an abbreviation point at the end of the sentence, it also serves as the end point, i.e. no further point is set:

"Names of various ancient coins are: Gulden, etc cruisers, chunk, Taler . "

The point in ordinal numbers

(§ 104) A point is placed after digits that stand for ordinal numbers :

  • Joseph II . (read: Joseph the Second, Joseph the Second, Joseph the Second)
  • Joseph II . (read: Joseph the Second)
  • 28 . November 1977 - 4 . School work - 2 . Edition

(§ 105) If there is an ordinal number at the end of the sentence, the point also serves as the end point:

“The successor of Wilhelm I was Friedrich III . "

The point as a distinguishing mark

Numbers 6 and 9 are usually followed by a point in cases where they could be confused (overprints, lots, etc.). Example: 6th on the lottery ball in the lottery.

Representation of the point

The point is shown in the enlargement at the beginning of the article. However, circular points also occur, especially in handwritten notes. In some Asian languages, especially Japanese and Chinese , a small circle ( U +3002,。) is used in place of a filled-in period. There is also a variant of the point (U + FF0E,．) for the full-width font that is used in these languages.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swiss Federal Chancellery (Ed.): Writing instructions. Instructions from the Federal Chancellery on the writing and formulation of the German-language official federal texts . February 11, 2008. Online version ( Memento from January 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Mathematics curriculum ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 252 kB) on schule.sg.ch , accessed on September 27, 2013
  3. ↑ See Duden online: Uhr
  4. ↑ Guidelines for the design of statistical tables for network programming, Working Group Publications of the State Statistical Offices, Wiesbaden 1997, 41 pages, here: page 36.
  5. ↑ GENESIS-Online database: Explanation of symbols
  6. ^ Advice for German Spelling : German Spelling. Rules and dictionary. Revised version of the official regulations 2004 (PDF; 740 kB)
  7. ↑ See also Duden rules on the point
  8. ↑ See also the Duden rules for abbreviations