Capitalization and Punctuation Flashcards
6 cards from real ITBS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Capitalization and Punctuation flashcards as text
Which of the following sentences uses capitalization correctly?
Answer: Last summer, my family and I went to see the Pacific Ocean.
Proper nouns, which include specific people, places, and things, must be capitalized. 'Pacific Ocean' is the specific name of an ocean and should be capitalized. In the other options, 'Christmas,' 'Washington, D.C.,' and 'spring' are incorrectly capitalized (seasons are not capitalized unless part of a proper name). 'Aunt Carol' is correct, but 'Spring' is not.
Read the following sentence: 'Let's eat grandma!' Which punctuation mark is needed to change the meaning and make the sentence a safe suggestion?
Answer: A comma
A comma is needed for direct address. Placing a comma after 'eat' separates the person being spoken to ('grandma') from the action, changing the sentence to 'Let's eat, grandma!'. This makes it an invitation for grandma to eat, rather than a suggestion to eat her.
Which sentence correctly uses an apostrophe to show possession?
Answer: That is my friend's new bicycle.
To show singular possession, you add an apostrophe followed by an 's' ('friend's'). 'Dogs's' is incorrect for a plural noun; it should be 'dogs''. 'Students' and 'cats' are plural nouns, so the apostrophe should come after the 's' to show possession (students', cats').
In which sentence is punctuation used correctly?
Answer: I asked my mom, "Can we go to the park?"
Quotation marks are used to enclose a direct quote, and the punctuation (in this case, a question mark) goes inside the closing quotation mark. Option A incorrectly uses a colon after a verb. Option C confuses 'it's' (it is) with the possessive 'its'. Option D incorrectly uses a semicolon before a coordinating conjunction ('but'); a comma would be appropriate.
Dr. Evans lives at 123 Main Street, Anytown, USA. When writing his title and address, which part contains a capitalization error?
Answer: 123 Main street
The names of specific streets are proper nouns and should be fully capitalized. Therefore, 'Main Street' should be capitalized, not 'Main street'. Titles like 'Dr.', names of people, cities, and countries are all capitalized correctly.
Which of the following correctly punctuates the end of a question?
Answer: When does the school play start?
A direct question requires a question mark at the end. 'When does the school play start?' is a direct question. 'I wonder what time the school play is' is a declarative statement expressing wonder, so it ends with a period. The other options use incorrect terminal punctuation.