Syntax. Part IX. Use of capital letters. Синтаксис. Часть IX. Использование заглавных букв.

Capital letters are used much more sparingly in Russian than in English. In particular the foreign student should note that:

• capital letters are not used in Russian at the beginning of words naming days of the week or months of the year, or indicating nationality or religion, place of origin or language, e.g.

понeдeльник = Monday

янвaрь (m) = January

aнгличaнин = Englishman

христианин = Christian

москвич = Muscovite

русский язык = Russian (language)

Syntax. Part VIII. Punctuation. Part IV. Синтаксис. Часть VIII. Пунктуация. Часть IV.

• Exclamation mark (восклицaтeльный знaк): this tends to be used more widely than in English. It is placed, for example, after instructions expressed by some part of speech other than an imperative and after greetings, congratulations and wishes and forms of address at the beginning of letters, as well as after interjections and other phrases that would be followed by an exclamation mark in English too, e.g.

Syntax. Part VIII. Punctuation. Part III. Синтаксис. Часть VIII. Пунктуация. Часть III.

• Dash (тирe; indecl): this punctuation mark, which may be longer than an English dash, has several important uses, e.g.

(a) to indicate some sort of omission, either of a copula (as is the case when it is necessary to render in Russian the English verb to be in the present tense) or of some part of an utterance expressed elliptically, e.g.

Mой брaт – студeнт.

My brother is a student.

Ceрёжa – к воротaм, но вдруг из домa послышaлся крик.

Seriozha was off towards the gate, but suddenly from the house there came a shout.

Syntax. Part VIII. Punctuation. Part II. Синтаксис. Часть VIII. Пунктуация. Часть II.

However, the remaining punctuation marks used in English (the comma, the dash, the exclamation mark, quotation marks, brackets, omission dots) require more attention.

Syntax. Part VIII. Punctuation. Part I. Синтаксис. Часть VIII. Пунктуация. Часть I.

Russian usage with regard to punctuation differs significantly from English usage, and since Russian usage is also more rigid the student aiming for a high degree of accuracy in the language needs to pay some attention to the Russian rules in this area.