diff --git a/js/games/story-reader.js b/js/games/story-reader.js
index 2446b55..c91209c 100644
--- a/js/games/story-reader.js
+++ b/js/games/story-reader.js
@@ -1115,11 +1115,16 @@ class StoryReader {
     breakSentenceIntoWords(original, translation) {
         if (!original) return [];
 
-        const words = original.split(/\s+/).filter(word => word.trim().length > 0);
-        const translationWords = translation ? translation.split(/\s+/).filter(word => word.trim().length > 0) : [];
+        // First, separate punctuation from words while preserving spaces
+        const preprocessed = original.replace(/([.,!?;:"'()[\]{}\-–—])/g, ' $1 ');
+        const words = preprocessed.split(/\s+/).filter(word => word.trim().length > 0);
+
+        // Do the same for translation
+        const translationPreprocessed = translation ? translation.replace(/([.,!?;:"'()[\]{}\-–—])/g, ' $1 ') : '';
+        const translationWords = translationPreprocessed ? translationPreprocessed.split(/\s+/).filter(word => word.trim().length > 0) : [];
 
         return words.map((word, index) => {
-            // Clean punctuation for word lookup
+            // Clean punctuation for word lookup, but preserve punctuation in display
             const cleanWord = word.replace(/[.,!?;:"'()[\]{}\-–—]/g, '').toLowerCase();
 
             // Try to find in vocabulary
@@ -1127,11 +1132,23 @@ class StoryReader {
             let wordType = 'word';
             let pronunciation = '';
 
+            // Special handling for letter pairs (like "Aa", "Bb", etc.)
+            if (/^[A-Za-z]{1,2}$/.test(cleanWord)) {
+                wordType = 'letter';
+                wordTranslation = word; // Keep the letter as is
+            }
+
+            // Special handling for punctuation marks
+            if (/^[.,!?;:"'()[\]{}]$/.test(word)) {
+                wordType = 'punctuation';
+                wordTranslation = word; // Keep punctuation as is
+            }
+
             // Look up in content vocabulary if available
             if (this.vocabulary && this.vocabulary[cleanWord]) {
                 const vocabEntry = this.vocabulary[cleanWord];
                 wordTranslation = vocabEntry.user_language || vocabEntry.translation || wordTranslation;
-                wordType = vocabEntry.type || 'word';
+                wordType = vocabEntry.type || wordType;
                 pronunciation = vocabEntry.pronunciation || '';
             }