colon usage

[sharanbr]

Hi,

Would like to know if colon can be used in the following way.

You need to go to the following address :

xyz, street abc, zip ...

Regards

 

[RonBee]

Yes, but don't space between the colon and the word.

~R

 

[sharanbr]

Yes, but don't space between the colon and the word.

~R

Thanks. So are you saying that one can use colon even though I might not be listing items in a series ?

Regards

 

[rewboss]

Thanks. So are you saying that one can use colon even though I might not be listing items in a series ?

There are other uses for the colon, yes. But here you actually are listing items in a series; namely, the different parts of an address.

A colon can be used to connect two sentences together when the second sentence contrasts or explains the first.

Steve was wet through: it had been raining hard. (The second sentence explains why he was wet.)

Mary eats to live: Dave lives to eat. (The two sentences contrast each other.)

However, the colon is not often used these days.

 

[RonBee]

Thanks. So are you saying that I can use a colon even though I might not be listing items in a series ?

In English we don't space before final punctuation. We space after it. So your QM (question mark) shouldn't be out there by itself.

Read my posts and you will see some examples of colon use. For example:

this one
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