4.6. Punctuation
The Japanese period and comma are slightly different in shape from English ones. The Japanese period is a small circle, not a dot.
| Hiragana: |  |  |  |  | 
|
| Phonemes: | o | ha | yo | u'
|
| Meaning: | Good morning.
|
The Japanese comma is a short line written from upper left to lower right.
| Hiragana: |  |  |  |  | 
|
| Phonemes: | ta | to' | e | ba
|
| Meaning: | For example,
|
Japanese has a question mark and an exclamation point which are the same as English ones, but you don't have to use question marks even for question sentences. If a sentence is clearly a question, which has a grammatical question marker, you can use a period instead of a question mark. That will be explained in a later chapter.
| Hiragana: |  |  | | | 
|
| Phonemes: | ho | n | to | u
|
| Meaning: | Really?
|
| Hiragana: |  |  |  | 
|
| Phonemes: | su | go' | i
|
| Meaning: | Great!
|
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