NLPhilia Blog

Sorry… there’s just no better title for this post. I’m talking about the punctuation mark that looks like : .

In the spirit of a couple of recent posts on punctuation (the use of the comma and the apostrophe), I’d like to refer you to DumbLittleMan’s Guide to Colon Use.

The high points are the following nine, though there are a few more:

1. To introduce a list
2. To introduce direct speech
3. When showing an example
4. To offer a conclusion
5. To explain something more fully
6. To Introduce a subtitle
7. As a substitution for a conjunction
8. To link independent clauses
9. To Introduce a question

(Hey, I used one to introduce a list!)

Get the full story at The DumbLittleMan Guide to Colon Use.