Fullwidth comma

It marks a pause between parts of a Chinese sentence.

This Chinese comma separates clauses or other sentence parts; lists use 、 instead. In “苹果、梨、桃”, 、 separates the listed fruit.

Chinese normally has no space after punctuation. This wide comma is sized to fit an East Asian character grid.

How did this mark become Chinese punctuation?

It grew from reading marks into modern standardized punctuation.

Chinese writing did not always use a standard comma. Readers and teachers used dots, brush marks, or spaces to break continuous text and guide interpretation. A manuscript has a rare dated sequence, 539–562: it was copied in 539, then a monk added punctuation in 562 to guide lectures. Those later marks helped readers and were not part of the original copy.

Western-style punctuation entered modern Chinese print in the early twentieth century. In the 1910s–1930s, modern poets used imported marks to clarify text; a later generation sometimes rejected punctuation to preserve ambiguity. In Japan, Western punctuation appeared in textbooks during the Meiji period (1868–1912) and spread through fiction.

When should I use a different comma?

Use it for Chinese; follow the punctuation style of Japanese text.

In Chinese text, keep ， for clause pauses. Japanese horizontal layout may pair ， with ． alongside native 、 and 。, especially in mixed Japanese-Western text. Follow the style used in the surrounding Japanese text.

In all-English prose, a stray fullwidth comma usually means the input mode or pasted text carried CJK width, not a change in tone. In Chinese line-end typesetting, fullwidth punctuation may be squeezed narrower. The character stays ，, though font and layout can make it look narrower; use the ordinary comma in English sentences.