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Grammar detail: Japanese punctuation
Japanese punctuation
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In general Japanese punctuation mirrors English punctuation. Each sentence is ended with a period (。), known as
くてん
句点
, and clauses are delineated with commas (、), known as とうてん
読点
. Various types of parenthesis perform similar functions. Below are the key symbols and some notes on their usage.Brackets / parentheses
In Japanese, the 'ink-filled' brackets【 】are common, as are angle brackets〈 〉in addition to double-sized versions of standard brackets.
Ellipsis
In Japanese an ellipsis (three or some other number of consecutive dots) is common, and typically uses the ellipsis character: …
Interpunct or middle dot
In Japanese, similar words or alternatives that might be separated with a slash ('/') in English, are often separated with an 'interpunct': ・
Quotation marks
Quotation marks in Japanese are used in the same way as English, but look quite different: 「 」
Emphasis
In Japanese, italics and bold text are less common used. A word or phrase is usually emphasized by adding a 'side dot' to each character, typically: ﹅ (known as the
くろ
黒
ゴマ, or 'black sesame (seed)'.Comma - とうてん読点
In Japanese, the comma (、) is used quite similarly to the comma in English - to introduce a short pause into a sentence, or to make sense of a clause by separating it from what follows.
More information / references
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation ⇗
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_typographic_symbols ⇗
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