punctuation character contains a character or string of characters regarded as constituting a single punctuation mark. indicates the extent to which this punctuation mark conventionally separates words or phrases the punctuation mark is a word separator the punctuation mark is not a word separator the punctuation mark may or may not be a word separator provides a name for the kind of unit delimited by this punctuation mark. indicates whether this punctuation mark precedes or follows the unit it delimits. do you understand ?