5 Punctuation Marks That Can REPLACE Letters or Words

Punctuation marks don’t just exist to end sentences. They have a whole range of jobs, like introducing quotations, marking transitions mid-sentence, and connecting compound words. Another one of their many jobs is to REPLACE missing letters or words, and this particular job is so important that it takes FIVE different punctuation marks to do it (or six…depending on how you look at it 😂)!

Each of the different punctuation marks that can do this job has its own specific role—they’re not interchangeable in the various situations. For example, a comma can’t indicate a missing letter mid-word, and an apostrophe can’t indicate missing words in a quote.

Let’s take a look at all the different punctuation marks and their specific jobs when it comes to replacing letters and words!

1. Apostrophe: Indicates a Dropped Letter in a Word

Apostrophes mark where the letters are missing in contractions like can’t, she’ll, they’re, and mac ‘n’ cheese.

• can’t = cannot (apostrophe marks the missing “n” and “o”)
• she’ll = she will (apostrophe marks the missing space, “w,” and “i”)
• they’re = they are (apostrophe marks the missing space and “a”)
• mac ‘n’ cheese = mac and cheese (apostrophes mark the missing “a” and “d”)

The contractions listed above are all pretty common, but you can also use apostrophes wherever you need them to show what a person or character’s accented speech sounds like.

“I ain’t tryin’ ta fool nobody,” Bill protested. “But they gon’ blame me anyway, jus’ you wait.”

The only time you need to be careful with contractions is in formal writing. Some teachers and audiences don’t like seeing them in academic papers and other formal documents.

Learn more about contractions here!

2. Period: Indicates an Abbreviated Word

A period at the end of a word (when it’s not the last word in a sentence) means that the word has been abbreviated.

• Dr. = doctor
• Mrs. = missus
• appt. = appointment
• etc. = etcetera

Most abbreviated words do need periods at the end, but there are a couple of exceptions to this rule.

First, most abbreviated units of measurement do not need periods at the end.

• ft = feet
• sq ft = square feet
• mi = miles
• cm = centimeters
• mL = milileters

HOWEVER, for clarity’s sake, you should put a period after in. (short for inches) to make sure people don’t confuse it with the word in (meaning “inside of” or “into”).

Secondly, sometimes abbreviations for the states in the United States are not abbreviated.

• KY = Kentucky
• TX = Texas
• IA = Iowa

Most people don’t know what these 11 abbreviations stand for!

3. Em Dash: Indicates a Word Has Been Partially Removed

If part of a word has been removed or is unknown, an em dash indicates the missing letters. This is helpful in two situations: (1) when scholars need it to indicate that a certain word in a document is illegible, and (2) when publishers need it to replace parts of expletives because they can’t print swear words.

According to a townsperson’s letter from 1804, “The events of this year were e—ng to say the least.”

The accused is reported to have yelled, “This f— investigation is s—!” as he exited the station.

There are 3 different kinds of dashes—learn about all of them here!

4. Ellipsis Points: Indicates Deleted Words Within a Quotation

If you want to quote just part of a sentence (not the whole thing), you should use ellipsis points to replace the words you left out. Ellipsis points are three periods with a space between each one (and a space before the first one and after the last one).

Material being quoted: If an employee wishes to terminate their contract for any reason whatsoever, as long as they have followed the steps in section B, they may do so at any time.

Quotation: The current procedure states that “if an employee wishes to terminate their contract . . . they may do so at any time.”

The ellipsis points let readers know that there are more words in the original document that have been left out of the quoted material. You should never remove words from a quotation without replacing them with ellipsis points.

However, if you’re just quoting bits and pieces of something (not a whole section all at once), you don’t need ellipsis points.

Material being quoted: If an employee wishes to terminate their contract for any reason whatsoever, as long as they have followed the steps in section B, they may do so at any time.

Quotation: The current procedure states that an employee who wants to “terminate their contract” is allowed to do it “at any time.”

When the words that are omitted are within one sentence, you need three ellipsis points. But if the omission spans more than one sentence (i.e., you’re removing more than just a part of one sentence), you’ll need FOUR dots: one period followed by three ellipsis points.

Learn when you need a comma before a quote (and when you DON’T) here!

5. Comma or Semicolon: Indicates Missing Words in a Parallel Construction

A parallel construction is when you have two or more phrases that use basically the same grammatical form. The phrases are almost identical.

I was born and raised in Kentucky. My husband was born and raised in Texas.

In these sentences, the only things that are changing are the subjects and states. Because they’re so similar, we can turn one into an ELLIPTICAL construction, which means we can remove some of those words so that it doesn’t sound so repetitive. In this situation, we need to put them together into a single sentence, and we’ll connect them with a comma or semicolon:

I was born and raised in Kentucky, my husband in Texas.

This isn’t considered a comma splice because “my husband in Texas” is not an independent clause.

The comma works great for a simple sentence like that, but for more complicated elliptical constructions, you may need a semicolon.

Towards the beginning of the school year, students were earning mostly A’s and B’s; towards the end, mostly C’s and D’s.

Not sure about colons vs. semicolons? Learn all about them here!

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Sources:

• Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditor’s Handbook. 3rd ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: Univ of California Pr, 2011.