Hey, everyone, welcome to another English grammar lesson. Today we're going to be covering
colons.
So just like the semicolon, the colon might seem intimidating, but if you remember
just a few rules, it's actually pretty easy to use. So, in professional and academic writing,
here's how it works: Colons must come after a full sentence and before some extra information
about that sentence. So, what exactly do I mean by "extra information"? Well, let's take
a look at an example. "I need a few things from the store: eggs, milk, and cheese." So
this would be a proper use of a colon. Let's see why. Well, first, there's a full sentence
before the colon. And second, after the colon, there's some extra information about the stuff
before the colon. “Eggs, milk, and cheese” give me extra information about what exactly
I need to get from the store. Let's take a look at another example: "I play two sports:
basketball and baseball." Again, we have a complete sentence first, and the stuff after
the colon gives more information about the sentence; it tells exactly what sports I play.
Another example: "I have several hobbies: reading, writing, playing the piano, etc."
Again, the stuff before the colon is a sentence, and the stuff after the colon gives more information
about that sentence. Now, you're probably noticing a pattern here; you're probably thinking,
"Okay, well, it seems like the stuff after a colon is pretty much always a list." And
that's true; most of the time it is. But not all the time. In fact, sometimes, the stuff
after a colon—the extra information—can actually be a complete sentence. Let me show
you… "His room was a mess: There were clothes everywhere, and a pile of dirty dishes sat
on the bed." So, just like the other examples, this is a proper use of a colon. You have
a complete sentence before the colon along with some extra information about that sentence
right after the colon. Only, in this example, the extra information is actually a full sentence.
And if that's the case, we just capitalize it. And that's it! That's how you use colons:
Full sentence first. Extra information after. And yes, most of the time that extra information
is going to be a list, but on rare occasions it will actually be a full sentence. So let’s
take a look at some examples and see if the colons are being used correctly. "My dog's
name is: Lucy." Okay, so, remember, the first thing we always need to check is whether or
not we have a complete sentence before the colon. Do we? Is "My dog’s name is" a sentence?
No, it's not. So, right off the bat, we know that this sentence is not correct. There should
not actually be a colon in this sentence. You should just say, "My dog's name is Lucy
[period].” Next one… "Tom likes: cake and ice cream." Hmm… Okay, well, unfortunately,
we have the exact same problem here. "Tom likes" is not a sentence. So this one’s
wrong too. And don't be fooled; do not get lazy. You need to make sure there is a full
sentence before that colon. To some people, this might look correct because the "cake
and ice cream" part is giving more information about what Tom likes. But you don’t have
a complete sentence before that, so it is not correct. Just like the last one, this
sentence does not need a colon at all. It should just say, "Tom likes cake and ice cream,”
with a period at the end—that’s all. Don’t just start throwing colons into every sentence
you see that has a list in it; that’s not how they work. All right… "I eat the same
thing for lunch every day: a peanut butter sandwich with chips." All right, what’ve
we got here? Is the part before the colon a complete sentence? Answer is... yes. “I
eat the same thing for lunch every day.” That is a complete sentence. And does the
stuff after the colon give extra information about that sentence? Also yes. So we're good.
We've got it. This is how you use a colon. Last one: "Today was really boring: My house
is red." What do you think? Well, this one should be pretty obvious. At first glance,
it looks the part. You've got a sentence before the colon, and you’ve got more stuff after
the colon that’s kind of extra information. The problem is the stuff after the colon has
nothing to do with the stuff before the colon, so it can’t really be considered extra information.
For this to have worked, we would've needed to, like, describe how the day was boring.
But saying "My house is red" has nothing to do with the day being boring, so this sentence
does not work. Maybe if we rewrote it like this it would be fine: "Today was really boring:
We just sat around for hours on end." I don’t know. This way, we’re actually giving more
information about the day. Okay, so it occurs to me that you can also use colons for, like,
Bible verses and time and stuff, but that stuff's pretty simple, so if you really want
to know about that, you can probably just go look it up on your own. Either way, whether
you came here for a refresher or are just now learning this stuff for the first time,
I hope this video helped. Be sure to check out the free practice down in the description,
and—uh—we’ll see you next time. Thanks.