MEPX
Chapter 3 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What punctuation is for
  2. 2Commas
  3. 3Colons and semicolons
  4. 4Apostrophes
  5. 5Dashes, hyphens and brackets
  6. 6Quotation marks
  7. 7Sentence endings
  8. 8Lists and bullets
  9. 9Numbers, dates and abbreviations
  10. 10Checking punctuation

Chapter 3 of 10

Colons and semicolons

Two marks, two jobs.

The colon

It introduces: a list, an explanation, a quotation or an example. What comes before it should be a complete sentence.

  • Do not use a colon after a verb: the winners are Ana, Ben and Chi needs no colon.
  • A capital after a colon is optional and depends on style.

The semicolon

It joins two complete sentences too closely related for a full stop. It also separates list items that themselves contain commas, which is its most useful job.