The Colon
We use the colon ( : ) to:
1. introduce explanatory or appositive material.
- There is only one person I can trust: myself.
2. introduce a list or a quotation.
- So many happy thing happened in Marc's life recently: he got married, found a well-paid job and then won a lottery.
- The President expressed his concern over the crisis: "We have to find a way out of this situation."
3. A common mistake among both ESL students and native speakers as well is to place a colon after such or including.
- I know many people who have problems falling asleep, such as: Jake, Mike and Arnold.
- I know many people who have problems falling asleep, such as Jake, Mike and Arnold.
- He has visited a number of countries during the last year, including: China and Brazil.
- He has visited a number of countries during the last year, including China and Brazil.
Also, do not place a colon:
a) after verbs and its object and subject complements.
- The most affluent provinces are: (...)
- The most affluent provinces are (...)
b) after prepositions:
- We stayed in: Sweden, Belgium and Germany (...)
- We stayed in Sweden, Belgium and Germany (...)
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