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Punctuation

Question mark(?) is used with the interrogatives e.g. who, why, when, what etc. They are used to end the question.

English	Acholi
What is your name?	Nyingi nga?
How old are you?	Mwoka ni adi?
Where do you come from?	I bino ki kany?
When did you arrive?	I ok a wene?

Exclamation mark(!) is used for command statements.

English	Acholi
What happen!	Ngo mo time!
Why don't you come!	Pingo bong i bin!
Who was that!	Moni nga!
Bring it here!	Kel kany!

Quotation mark('', “”) are either double or single quotes are for quoting statements from another person or reporting something from someone.

English	Acholi
He said, “I will come tomorrow”	En owaco nia, “ebino diki”
I said, “what is wrong?”	I waco ni, “ngo marac?”
according to Obol, 'It was a sad story…"	Kit pa obol, “en ododo marac…”
it was raining yesterday’, Odul said	kot ocwe laworo’, Odul owaco nia

Comma(,) is used to mark a breathing point in a sentence. Some sentences are too long to read the whole thing so we put comma to say you can breath here. It is also used to break things.

English	Acholi
One, two, three, and four.	Acel, ariyo, adek, ki angwen.
This sentence is too long, we offer a breathing place here.	Coc en ni bor, wa keto ka ywe kany.
I am lokang, you are Okello, and we are luo writers.	an Lokang, in Okello, ki wan weng lococ Luo.

Semicon(;) is used to end long sentence which have comma in it.

English	Acholi
In the morning I eat breakfast, take tea, and wash my face; in the afternoon i cook food and sleep.	ki odiko i camo, mato cai, ki a lwoko wanga; i otieno atedo kwon ki a nino.
We arrived late; our bus broke down; then they made it run again.	wa ok kwe; bac twua obale; ki gi yibo oweko oringo too.

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