ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Writing Videos 89 videos

Wordiness
15167 Views

Want even more deets on wordiness? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Tenses
4967 Views

Want even more deets on tenses? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Semicolons
10243 Views

Want even more deets on semicolons? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

See All

Colons 3438 Views


Share It!


Description:

This video covers colons. How do you use them in a sentence? What do they have to do with lists?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Colons, a la Shmoop.

00:09

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

00:12

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

00:15

into the well...

00:16

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

00:21

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

00:26

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

00:32

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

00:37

the lookout for additional information.

00:41

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

00:45

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

00:50

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

00:53

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

00:57

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

01:03

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

01:07

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

01:12

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

01:15

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

01:22

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

01:24

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

01:29

a sentence fragment.

01:32

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

01:36

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

01:42

use in a sentence.

01:44

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

01:50

and Wednesday"...

01:50

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

01:55

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

01:59

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

02:05

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

02:11

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

02:17

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

02:21

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

02:25

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

02:31

Woot! That one works!

02:33

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

02:37

Sunday, and Wednesday."

02:39

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

02:44

in sentences...

02:45

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

02:49

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

02:54

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

03:00

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

03:06

on its own as a sentence.

03:07

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

03:12

reads...

03:13

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

03:18

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

03:22

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

03:24

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

03:29

kids who've fallen down the well."

03:32

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

03:36

a complete sentence.

03:38

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

03:43

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

03:45

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

03:51

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

03:53

salutation of a letter.

03:59

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

04:03

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

04:09

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

04:14

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

04:19

to put a fence up around it.

04:23

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

04:26

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

04:30

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

04:34

that would normally be capitalized.

04:36

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

04:41

Bangladesh, and Brazil"...

04:43

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

04:47

France is a proper noun.

04:48

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

04:53

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

04:56

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

05:02

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

05:05

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

05:09

that colon...

05:10

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

05:13

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

05:16

We wouldn't bet on that.

Related Videos

What is a Primary Source?
43696 Views

This video defines a primary source and what makes it different from a secondary source. What counts as original material? And where can we find th...

Wordiness
15167 Views

Want even more deets on wordiness? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Tenses
4967 Views

Want even more deets on tenses? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Semicolons
10243 Views

Want even more deets on semicolons? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Ratio of Asking Questions Versus Giving Answers
718 Views

Asking questions can help spice up an essay. Just make sure you don't get too spicy and forget to answer those questions. You don't want to leave y...