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Colons, a la Shmoop.

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It's time for little Timmy to make his Christmas list.

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Sure, it'd be awesome if Santa could deliver a device that would keep him from falling

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into the well...

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...but there are so many other toys and gadgets that Timmy would love to see under the tree...

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...that he'll list them all right here...after this colon.

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No, Timmy isn't referring to a critical part of his digestive system...

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...but rather to the punctuation mark that signals we should expect something or be on

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the lookout for additional information.

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Colons appear all over the place: in sentences, lists, and salutations...

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...so let's look at some examples. When we use a colon in a sentence, we use

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it only after a statement that is a complete sentence...

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...so that we can clarify or expand on what came before it.

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So if we say, "Timmy wants several toys for Christmas...colon...an Easy Bake oven,

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a watercolor kit, a Barbie doll, and a Lite-Brite"...

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...we're using the colon correctly, because "Timmy wants several toys for Christmas"

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is a statement that can stand alone as a complete sentence.

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However, if we say, "The toys Timmy wants are...colon...an Easy Bake oven, a watercolor

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kit, a Barbie doll, and a Lite-Brite"...

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...we'd be using the colon incorrectly, because "The toys Timmy wants are" is

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a sentence fragment.

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And perhaps Timmy should rethink his toy choices. What's a kid going to do with a Lite-Brite

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when he's stuck in a well? Here's another example of correct colon

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use in a sentence.

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If we say, "Timmy fell down the well three times last week...colon...on Saturday, Sunday,

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and Wednesday"...

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...we know our sentence works, because "Timmy fell down the well three times last week"

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is a statement that can stand on its own. Even if Timmy...can't.

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However, if we say "Timmy fell down the well on...colon...Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday"...

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...our sentence would be incorrect, because "Timmy fell down the well on" is a sentence fragment.

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If we have any doubts about the correctness of a colon's placement in a sentence, we

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can always trade out the colon for the word "namely" as a test.

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Let's see what happens if we try this trick with our last example.

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"Timmy fell down the well three times last week...namely...on Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday."

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Woot! That one works!

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Now for our second incorrect sentence. "Timmy fell down the well on...namely...Saturday,

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Sunday, and Wednesday."

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Uh, yeah. Not so much. We use colons in lists just as we use them

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in sentences...

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...after statements that can stand alone as complete sentences.

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Say we have the list, "Timmy has three things he hates about the well...colon...the dark...the

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damp...and the ghosts of other kids who've fallen down the well".

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This list works, because "Timmy has three things he hates about the well" can stand

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on its own as a sentence.

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We can check this by substituting the colon for the word "namely", so that our list

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reads...

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..."Timmy has three things he hates about the well...namely...the dark, the damp, et

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cetera". Here's an example of a list gone terribly

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wrong, rather like Timmy's luck around that blasted well...

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"Three things Timmy hates about the well...colon...the dark...the damp...and the ghosts of other

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kids who've fallen down the well."

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This list doesn't work, because "Three things Timmy hates about the well" isn't

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a complete sentence.

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Moreover, if we replace the colon in this example with the word "namely", we get...

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..."Three things Timmy hates about the well...namely...the dark..."

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Okay, let's just stop right there, because this example utterly fails the "namely"

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test. Another place we might see a colon is in the

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salutation of a letter.

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Say Timmy's mom makes him write a letter to the fire department, which has rescued

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him from the well fifteen times in the last three months.

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Timmy would start the letter with the salutation, "Dear Firefighters...colon..."

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Say Timmy's dad makes him write a letter to Farmer Nesbitt, who owns the well but refuses

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to put a fence up around it.

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Timmy would start the letter with the salutation, "Dear Mr. Nesbitt...colon..."

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There's one clarification we need to make about colon use...

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...you don't have to capitalize the first letter after a colon unless the word is one

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that would normally be capitalized.

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For example, if we had the sentence, "Timmy had three places he wanted to visit...colon...France,

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Bangladesh, and Brazil"...

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...we would of course capitalize the letter "F" in the word "France", because

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France is a proper noun.

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However, if we had the sentence, "Timmy had three places he wanted to visit...colon...the

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grocery store, the post office, and the movie theater"...

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...we wouldn't have to capitalize the "t" in "the", because that "the" is nothing

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special. And now it's Christmas morning at Timmy's

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house. Looks like Santa didn't pay much attention to all the toys he listed after

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that colon...

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...because his parents got him a puppy named Lassie...

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...in the hopes that their son's new dog will keep him out of the well.

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We wouldn't bet on that.

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