How to use the punctuation checker
- 1Paste your text into Your text. Punctuation is checked as you type.
- 2Untick any Rule groups you don't need (Commas, Apostrophes, Spacing, Quotes and brackets, Sentence endings and capitals).
- 3Read each result under Results: the rule, the marked text and why it's flagged.
- 4Press the suggested fix, Ignore it, or Fix all spacing to clean up every spacing issue at once.
The built-in example
Its a short list:apples , pears and plums. We left early,we were tired!! The report (draft two is attached. however the deadline hasn't changed. Lets meet on Monday.
Its → It's (its / it's) “ ,” → “,” (space before punctuation) “early,we” → “early, we” (missing space after punctuation) !! → ! (repeated punctuation) ( → never closed (unmatched brackets) however → However (capital at paragraph start) Lets → Let's (lets / let's)
Real output. The missing space in “list:apples” is not flagged: colons are skipped because of times (10:30) and ratios.
Comma rules the checker applies
- Possible comma splice (hint): a comma followed by a pronoun and a verb, as in “It's late, we should go”. Two complete sentences need a full stop, a semicolon, or a conjunction after the comma (“, so we should go”). Sentences that start with if, when, because, although and similar words are skipped, because there the comma is correct.
- “However” joining sentences (hint): “It rained, however we went” needs “It rained; however, we went”.
- Introductory words (hint): a sentence starting with However, Therefore, Moreover, Furthermore, Nevertheless, Consequently, Meanwhile, Unfortunately or Fortunately needs a comma after it.
- Doubled commas and missing space after a comma.
It does not decide where a comma is needed inside a sentence in general; that needs a grammar parser.
Apostrophes: its/it's, plurals and possessives
it's means “it is” or “it has”; its means “belonging to it” and never has an apostrophe. The checker flags “its” before words that only make sense with “it is/has” (its a, its been, its not, its going) and flags “it's own”. It also flags lets before a verb when you mean “let us” (lets go → let's go), your welcome (you're welcome) plus other your/you're patterns as hints, and apostrophes in plurals of numbers (1990's → 1990s). Ordinary possessives (the dog's bone, the dogs' bowls) can't be judged without knowing how many dogs you mean, so they are not checked.
Spacing, quotes and sentence endings
- Spacing: double spaces, a space before , . ; : ! ?, a missing space after , ; ! ? or after a full stop between words (“end.Next”), and spaces just inside brackets (hint). URLs, email addresses, decimals and abbreviations such as U.S. are skipped.
- Quotes and brackets: an opening ( [ { never closed in the same paragraph, a closing one without an opener, an odd number of straight double quotes, and curly “ ” that don't pair. Smileys like :) and list markers like 1) are ignored.
- Endings and capitals: a lowercase word after . ! ? (abbreviations such as e.g., etc. and Mr. are skipped), a paragraph starting in lowercase, a lowercase “i”, doubled full stops, “!!” and “??”, and a long paragraph with no closing punctuation (hint).
UK and US punctuation differences
| US style | UK style | |
|---|---|---|
| Main quotation marks | “double” | ‘single’ (often) |
| Full stop with quotes | inside: “like this.” | outside unless part of the quote: ‘like this’. |
| Abbreviations | Mr., Dr. | Mr, Dr |
| Serial (Oxford) comma | usual | optional |
The checker accepts both styles: it doesn't move full stops in or out of quotes or require Mr. with a full stop. Pick one style and use it consistently.
When to ignore a suggestion
Rules marked Hint look for patterns, not meaning. Ignore a comma-splice hint when the comma joins very short parallel clauses on purpose (“I came, I saw, I conquered”), or when a dialogue tag follows (“Wait, she said”). A lowercase word after a full stop may be a brand (eBay, iPhone, which are skipped automatically) or a code name. Repeated !! can be right in informal writing. Press Ignore to hide a result, or untick Show hints. For spelling and grammar too, use the online proofreader.
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