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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)'.
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More information / references:
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_punctuation ⇗
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_typographic_symbols ⇗

Kanji used in this grammar

句
ク    verse, phrase   
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5
点
テン    spot, point   
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3
読
ドク   トク   トウ   よむ to read   
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1
﹅
(sesame dot)
黒
コク   くろ    くろい black   
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2
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