punctuation rules in your language

[Shirleen]

I'm learning English punctuation rules these days, then I find it's quite different from my mother tongue, Chinese.
Since Chinese had no punctuation until the 20th century, I thought it's based on English.

There are rules sometimes confuse me, such as
1.use a comma (,) to separate a quotation from the rest of the sentence
2.use a colon (:) before a quote when the quote is introduced by a complete sentence
3.use a semicolon (;) between independent clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb


To be specific:
(Jack=杰克, .=。)

Jack said, "Let's go to the cinema."
杰克说：“我们去看电影吧。”

"Let's go to the cinema," Jack said.
“我们去看电影吧。”杰克说。

Do you understand, Jack?
杰克，你明白了吗？
It can also be translated verbatim as “你明白了吗？杰克。”, but it looks weird.

I can come to your party tomorrow; however, I will arrive late.
我明天可以去你的派对，不过，我会晚点到。


I would like to know how your language uses punctuation.
Do European languages follow similar rules to English?

 

[Penyafort]

In Catalan it's closer to English but with some differences too.

Jack said, "Let's go to the cinema."
杰克说：“我们去看电影吧。”

(colon + space + opening guillemet + direct speech sentence + full stop + closing guillemet)
El Jack va dir: «Anem al cinema.»

"Let's go to the cinema," Jack said.
“我们去看电影吧。”杰克说。

(Dialogues in books are: dash + direct speech sentence + space + dash + narrative comment)
—Anem al cinema —va dir el Jack.

Do you understand, Jack?
杰克，你明白了吗？

Ho entens, Jack?

I can come to your party tomorrow; however, I will arrive late.
我明天可以去你的派对，不过，我会晚点到。

Puc venir demà a la teva festa; tanmateix, hi arribaré tard.
(The comma there is common but optional)

 

[Shirleen]

In Catalan it's closer to English but with some differences too.


(colon + space + opening guillemet + direct speech sentence + full stop + closing guillemet)
El Jack va dir: «Anem al cinema.»


(Dialogues in books are: dash + direct speech sentence + space + dash + narrative comment)
—Anem al cinema —va dir el Jack.


Ho entens, Jack?


Puc venir demà a la teva festa; tanmateix, hi arribaré tard.
(The comma there is common but optional)

Thank you for sharing!
In Chinese, opening guillemet is used to cite books XD
e.g., 我上周读了《权力的游戏》。I read A Game of Thorns last week.

 

[Awwal12]

Russian punctuation is quite similar to English, although commas are used more intensively (dependent finite clauses, adverbial participle and postpositioned participle phrases must be always separated with commas). The 'Oxford comma' is only used when 'and' (и) conjoins two full clauses and those aren't both dependants of some third clause; otherwise using it would be a mistake in Russian. There are also minor differences in marking direct speech.