Using punctuation marks correctly

In writing, punctuation replaces the pauses and intonation of speech: whether the reader understands a sentence as the author meant depends on it. The comma separates homogeneous parts, an address, introductory words (albatta, of course; aftidan, apparently), ha and yo‘q at the beginning of a sentence and the parts of a compound sentence. The colon is put after a generalising word before an enumeration and when the author’s words come before direct speech: Bog‘da uch xil daraxt bor: olma, nok va o‘rik (There are three kinds of trees in the garden: apple, pear and apricot). The dash is used when subject and predicate are nouns (Toshkent – O‘zbekiston poytaxti), when the author’s words follow direct speech, and in dialogue; if the subject is a pronoun, no dash is used (Men o‘quvchiman). Quotation marks set off direct speech and the names of works and organisations. Brackets, quotation marks, two dashes and two commas are paired marks: whatever is opened must be closed. If the direct speech is declarative, the full stop goes after the closing quotation mark: Ustoz dedi: «Keling». Abbreviations are usually written with a full stop (va h.k., va b.), while those formed from initial letters have none (BMT, AQSH).