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Multiple Choice

Which of these is not a terminal punctuation mark?

Terminal punctuation marks end a sentence. A semicolon does not do that; it signals a pause that links two closely related independent clauses or separates items in a complex list. For example: “She wanted to go for a walk; it started raining.” Here, the thought continues after the semicolon, and the entire line ends with a period. In contrast, the period ends a declarative sentence, the question mark ends a question, and the exclamation point ends an exclamatory sentence. So the mark that is not terminal is the semicolon.

Terminal punctuation marks end a sentence. A semicolon does not do that; it signals a pause that links two closely related independent clauses or separates items in a complex list. For example: “She wanted to go for a walk; it started raining.” Here, the thought continues after the semicolon, and the entire line ends with a period. In contrast, the period ends a declarative sentence, the question mark ends a question, and the exclamation point ends an exclamatory sentence. So the mark that is not terminal is the semicolon.