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You can’t simply stick a colon in the middle of a sentence, even if the sentence contains a list. To use the earlier example: “When you go to the store, please get: cheese, oranges, bread, and ...
The colon, :, is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots aligned vertically. A colon often precedes an explanation, a list, [1] or a quoted sentence. [2] It is also used between hours and minutes in time, [1] between certain elements in medical journal citations, [3] between chapter and verse in Bible citations, [4] and, in the US, for salutations in business letters and other ...
Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other than just the letters of the alphabet. [1] English punctuation has two complementary aspects: phonological punctuation, linked to how the sentence can be read aloud, particularly to pausing; [2] and grammatical punctuation, linked to the structure of the sentence. [3]
These three points were the only ones used until the close of the fifteenth century, when Aldo Manuccio gave a better shape to the comma, and added the semicolon; the comma denoting the shortest pause, the semicolon next, then the colon, and the full point terminating the sentence.
It is clearer to use a colon to introduce a quotation if it forms a complete sentence, and this should always be done for multi-sentence quotations: The report stated: "There was a 45% reduction in transmission rate." In a letter to his son, Albert Einstein wrote: "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."
The clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon that functions as a conjunction, a colon instead of a semicolon between two sentences when the second sentence explains or illustrates the first sentence and no coordinating conjunction is being used to connect the sentences, or a conjunctive adverb preceded by a semicolon. A ...
When using "scare quotes", however, the comma goes outside. Other examples: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.) Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (The full sentence is quoted; the period is part of the quotation.)
People may use it if a friend totaled their car in an accident but walked away unscathed or if a birth plan didn't play out the way someone hoped. Dr. Muradian says this phrase misses the point.