Punctuations in Hindi

Hindi uses all the punctuation marks as used in English with the exception that full stop (.) is replaced by (|) known as purna viram. Many Hindi newspapers use even full stop (.). Other punctuation marks are:

a.     , alpa viram

b.     ; ardha viram

c.     ? Prashna bodhak cihna

d.     ! Vismyadi bodhak cihna

e.     - Yojak cihna

f.      ___ nirdesh/vivram bodhak cihna

g.     “ “ Uddharan cihna

h.     .. x x x Lopa cihna

i.      o/. laghava cihna. as in  Dr.R.P. Verma, डा. रा.प्र. वर्मा| .  

The distribution of these punctuation marks is more or less the same as in English, with some exceptions.

In poetry, Hindi uses purna viram ___ single as well as double (1 and 11). They can be called the Chanda alpaviram and Chanda purna viram, because they are used only in poetry, e.g.

      स्रवन  मुकर  कुडल  लसतद मुरव सुरवमा एकत्र | 

      सासि  समीप सोहत मनो स्रवन  मकर नक्षत्र | |