Ah, the happy, helpful colon. Use this little guy with lists, quotations, or to explain the thing (technical term: clause) that precedes the colon.  So:

Things we need for camping: air mattress, tent, stove.

I love what  Nietzsche said about perseverance: œYou can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.”

Life in three words: anything is possible.

Cautions when using colon:

Use it:

After the words œas follows or œthe following or where those words are implied.

In formal salutations

Where dialog is used (but aren’t bracketed by quotations.  Allen: People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.)

Don’t use a colon after a verb.  In other words, don’t do this: What I need: chocolate, punch¦ (though, I have to say as a side note, not really sure why we can’t do this¦seems to make sense to me to list after the word œneed but what the heck do I know?)

Natasha Deen author
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.