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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 7
Lesson 1: Introduction to colonsLinking function of the colon
KA grammarian Paige introduces an important piece of punctuation that helps link items in a sentence: the colon!
Want to join the conversation?
- At, Paige introduces this example sentence--"Going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears: parachutes" Rather than entering the grammatical morass of the colon, how about using the more conventional approach of apposition? "Going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears, parachutes. OR "Going skydiving made me face parachutes, one of my greatest fears." In my opinion, simplicity generally helps us to write more clearly. 1:10(16 votes)
- Yes! I'm with you. Apposition solves it all.
But Paige had a point when she made the video, and it's a good one: the POWER of the colon. That punctuation mark made an emphasis, where a comma would've been rather weak.
I think that if her list had had more than one example, the colon would have worked better. Such as: "My trip to the zoo allowed me to see three of my favorite animals: lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!).(23 votes)
- David Alexander answers questions for David Rheinstrom. But then why do they have different last names?(18 votes)
- and isn't David suppose to say "you can learn anything. David out".?(12 votes)
- In this video, David is not the voiceover.(7 votes)
- At, wouldn't you use "in" instead of "on the scavenger hunt"? It feels weird to use "on" there. 1:55(7 votes)
- "on" is used here like it is used for "on the job."(10 votes)
- I think I'm gonna need a rundown on colons vs em dashes.
Aside from the lists, you could replace most of these things with a comma or a dash, right?(6 votes)- Did our teacher, David Rheinstrom, fail to explain them well? If you don't understand him the first time, go back and try again, at half-speed. I've found him to be an effective presenter of the information you're seeking.(6 votes)
- I'm going to guess. Are you Paige?
EDIT: In the end you said "Paige Out". Ha, I was right!
Second Question: What happened to David?(5 votes)- Yes, that was Paige. It's always profitable to listen through to the very end.
As for David, when he finished these videos early in 2017 he went on to other things. Look him up on Google and you'll learn much.
Paige went back to the University of California to complete her degree.(8 votes)
- Hmmmm... I still don't get the difference of a colon and a comma.(6 votes)
- The thing I am confused with is the sentences that have the introductions with commas such as: Frank, who is my best friend, likes maths.(5 votes)
- wait but sometimes u can replace a colon with the word 'because' right? for example, take off your sunglasses when u drive through a tunnel because you cant see when its dark.(4 votes)
- There are many ways to join (or not join) two sentences in English. You choose among them for the one that you feel conveys both the meaning and feeling that you want to show in your sentence.
So, here we have two sentences. 1) Take off your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel. 2) You can't see when it's dark.
Each is true, but they are not necessarily related to each other. One may be about driving a bus through a tunnel. The other may be about waking up in a hotel room.
But let's assume that they are both about busses, found in an instruction book for young drivers. Here are three options, all of which are correct:
1) Take of your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel; you can't see when it's dark.
2) Take of your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel. You can't see when it's dark.
3) Take of your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel because you can't see when it's dark.(7 votes)
- I think that colon can just be replaced with a comman instead, for example: Going skydiving made me face my biggest fears, parachutes.
Is this right? I would appreciate correcting me and explaining more to me about how commas and colons work.(5 votes)- I thought that the instructor made a point of the comma not being "strong enough" for the meaning of this sentence, and noting the power of the colon for it's use here. Didn't she?(4 votes)
- Would it be incorrect to say "Going skydiving made me face one of my biggest fears, which is parachutes." rather than "Going skydiving made me face one of biggest fears: parachutes."?(2 votes)
- Both are correct. Your example is a straightforward telling of the situation. The example from the lesson has more poetic tension. It's a difference of style, not grammar.(9 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians. In this video I'm going to tell you about a piece of punctuation called the colon. The colon is these two
little dots right here, one stacked on top of the other. And it has quite a few functions, just like a lot of other
pieces of punctuation. The idea of this linking function
is that the colon can link an independent or dependent clause with another independent
or dependent clause, or a phrase, or a word when
there's a strong connection between the two things that it's linking. So if I want to tell someone what I think about two movies about
animals, I could say: Both movies are great,
but Sky Pal has one thing that makes it better:
dogs that play sports. This is one sentence with two parts that are linked with this colon. So the first part says,
both movies are great, but Sky Pal has one things
that makes it better. And that could stand alone as a sentence, but it doesn't tell us
what that one thing is. So the colon comes in and tells us, I'm about to tell you what that thing is, dogs that play sports. So in this case the
colon just sort of serves as a connection between the
purple part of the sentence and the yellow part of the sentence. Another example is something like: Going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears: parachutes. Right, again this colon is
sort of linking these two parts of the sentence where one answers an unanswered question
from the first part. Like, what is this greatest fear? Well, it's parachutes. The colon is here to link between this whole independent clause
and the word parachutes. I could just as well say
going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears. That's a perfectly fine sentence. But without a colon linking
to what that fear is, that sentence just kind
of leaves us wondering. So another sort of subset
of the colon's ability to link things is that
it can introduce things. One thing that the colon
can introduce is a list. I could say: We needed to find three more
items on the scavenger hunt: a four-leaf clover, a cauldron,
and an abandoned ship. The second thing a colon
can introduce is an item. If I'm talking about the other day when I had a weird legume
craving, I could say: I only wanted one thing from
the grocery store: peanuts. Lastly, a colon can introduce a quote. My friend Liz says it best: "Never open a jar of
pickles you can't close." I'm not really sure what that means, but she does say it best. So, as you can see, like it
was in the first couple of example sentences, there's
kind of information missing from the first parts of all
three of these sentences. We needed to find three more
items on the scavenger hunt. Well, what did you need to find? Or, I only wanted one thing
from the grocery store. What did you want? Or, my friend Liz says it best. Well, what does she say? That's were the colon comes in, to introduce that missing information. So there's one final case
of the linking function of the colon that I want
to get into in this video. If you remember from the
beginning of the video, I said that colons can
introduce an independent clause to another independent clause sometimes. That's pretty rare. Usually that's the job of
a comma and a conjunction, or maybe a semicolon. But, as always, it's still
important for you to know even the things that don't
happen all that often. Something like, remember
to take off your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel: you can't see when it's that dark. The colon in this example
shows that, you can't see when it's that dark is
an explanation of why you need to take off your sunglasses. This is one of the two types of sentences where it makes sense to have a colon between two parts of the sentence that could stand on their
own as individual sentences. So we can say, one, the second
part explains the first part. The other case is when the second part of the sentence is emphasized. So this would be something like, I drank way too much soda: I'm
never going to fall asleep! These are two independent clauses that could be their own sentences, but they're closely related enough that it makes sense to have
them connected as one. So the colon links them together. And the second part is emphasized, right? That's the focus of the sentence. I'm never going to fall asleep! So in these two sentences we can see that the colon can connect two parts that can stand alone as
their own sentences, right? Whether it's two independent clauses, like in the second sentence,
or an independent clause that's technically connected
to a dependent clause but can stand alone. Now okay, this usage is really uncommon. I really want to stress that. Usually when we're uniting
two independent clauses, or at least two parts of a sentence that can stand on their own
as individual sentences, we're gonna use a comma and
a conjunction or a semicolon. But in the case that the second clause, or the second part of the
sentence is emphasized or explaining the first clause, then you'll want to use a colon. Just keep that in mind. Usually this independent to
independent clause linking happens with a semicolon and not a colon. But regardless, this is important to know. It's possible in these specific cases. What's most important for you to take away is that the colon can link things and introduce things as
part of its many functions. And that's the linking
function of the colon. We've got independent
clauses, dependent clauses, phrases, words, and introductions for lists, and items, and quotes. You can learn anything. Paige out.