ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

Exclamation Point 351 Views


Share It!


Description:

Everyone gets excited sometimes. You won the spelling bee! Your mom made sundaes! Those are appropriate times for an exclamation point. But for most sentences, you'll want to use the simple, classic period. Otherwise, people might think you are yelling at them for no reason. Not exactly how you want to treat your readers.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in exclamation point allow shmoop we

00:08

all have that one friend one who's an endlessly happy

00:12

person always excited about life in school And her boyfriend

00:16

and her twelve cats let's call her cindy Thanks doc

00:21

and cindy is a pain in the rear because every

00:23

sentence chief speaks comes out like this o m g

00:27

did you see what happened to the library Carrie clueless

00:30

dropped her coke on the carpet with everywhere too many

00:34

exclamation point cyndi try and contain your enthusiasm I barely

00:38

even spilled exclamation point service special purpose in writing they

00:43

add whom to a sense or indicate the presence of

00:46

strong emotions like surprise pain fear more urgency Exclamation points

00:51

are like salt they should be used sparingly Clearly our

00:55

friend cindy never learned this lesson For example when cindy

00:59

talks about what she had for lunch it isn't necessary

01:01

for her to say i'm having a bologna sandwich explanation

01:05

point long sandwiches aren't exciting yellow however if cindy where

01:10

to find a roach on her bologna sandwich we'd expect

01:13

an exclamation point to make an appearance exclamation point When

01:18

cindy talks about the sweater she crow shade for her

01:20

Cat pumpkinhead she doesn't need to say his little sweater

01:24

is so precious exclamation point it's a cat sweater not

01:29

the solution to the riemann hypothesis However if justin bieber

01:34

likes a picture of cindy's sweater wearing feline on facebook

01:38

on my gosh then it would be perfectly appropriate for

01:41

cindy tow plus doubt the exclamation point that's what i'm

01:44

talking about while sentences we use in everyday speech might

01:47

occasionally married an exclamation point There's a special category of

01:51

phrases called x glam a torrey sentences these guys always

01:55

end with an exclamation mark when cindy stepped on a

01:58

lego and screens coach that out ends in an exclamation

02:03

point when cindy steps in a pile of cat vomit

02:07

in the middle of the night on the way to

02:09

the bathroom and screens growth That growth ends in an

02:13

exclamation point Well ha ha When cindy devises yet another

02:17

queen sweater designed for one of her many cats and

02:20

screens erica that eureka ends in an exclamation point when

02:27

it comes to quotation marks it could be a tad

02:30

difficult to figure out whether an exclamation point goes before

02:33

or after a quotation mark so here's the rule if

02:36

a whole sentences and exclamation exclamation point goes after the

02:41

quotation mark for example if we have the sentence cindy

02:44

was so surprised when carrie clueless said i like peanut

02:48

butter and tuna fish sandwiches the sentence would look like

02:52

this cindy was so surprised when carrie kula said comma

02:55

quotation mark i like peanut butter and tuna fish sandwiches

02:58

quotation marks explanation point got it however if only the

03:02

words within the quotation mark or an explanation and they

03:05

always are in cindi's case thing The exclamation point would

03:08

go inside the quotation mark for example if we have

03:12

the sense cindy told carrie clueless when grandmother died yesterday

03:15

and i'm told theo sentence would look like this sandy

03:20

told carrie clueless comma quotation mark My grandmother died yesterday

03:24

and i'm so sad exclamation point quotation marks and that's

03:28

pretty much it for exclamation points Most important thing to

03:31

remember is that fewer exclamation points there are in a

03:34

piece of writing the better good luck getting cindy on 00:03:37.898 --> [endTime] board with that one yeah So empty

Up Next

What is a Primary Source?
43684 Views

This video defines a primary source and what makes it different from a secondary source. What counts as original material? And where can we find th...

Related Videos

How to Use a Freakin' Comma
33573 Views

Want even more deets on How to Use a Freakin' Comma? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Using Quotations
3053 Views

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore." Perhaps our feathered friend was referring to this set of rules for using quotations in your essay...although we woul...

Semicolons
10238 Views

Want even more deets on semicolons? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Question Marks
3730 Views

Want even more deets on Question Marks? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.