The virgule punctuation mark, sometimes called a slash or a forward slash, has a few standard uses in English, plus many other common uses that aren’t considered standard by English grammar authorities.





The established uses of virgules include the following:

They’re used in web addresses and file paths (e.g., https://grammarist.com, c:/Program Files/Google Chrome/Chrome.exe).

They separate lines of poetry quoted without line breaks (e.g., Glory be to God for dappled things / For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim … ).

A virgule separates the numerator and the denominator in a fraction (e.g., ¾).






But the virgule appears in many additional, informal uses, including the following: