英语专题讲解-colons.ppt

The colon:a sentencegateway,Capital Community College,The Colon:a sentencegateway,The colon comes at a point in the sentence where the sentence,could,come to a complete stop.,Im going to tell you the names of my favorite breakfast foods.,We could even put a period after the word“foods,”couldnt we?In fact,we did.,The Colon:a sentencegateway,We know,however,whats going to come after this period.,Im going to tell you the names of my favorite breakfast foods.,Thats right,a,LIST,of breakfast foods.,The Colon:a sentencegateway,Im going to tell you the names of my favorite breakfast foods,:,meuslix,cornflakes,oatmeal,grits and gravy,and yogurt on toast.,And the proper punctuation mark to set off this list from what precedes it is a,colon,.The colon“announces”that a list is about to follow;it is the,gateway,to that list.,The Colon:a sentencegateway,My favorite breakfast foods are,meuslix,cornflakes,oatmeal,grits and gravy,and yogurt on toast.,Would I use a colon in the sentence above?,No,because the sentence does not come to a halt here.,Instead,the sentence flows right into the list.A colon would not be appropriate here.,The Colon:a sentencegateway,Examine this next sentence carefully.,Our math tutor wants just one thing from us that we try our best.,Here,we have an independent thought(ending with“us”).,followed by another kind of completer(a noun clause).,The Colon:a sentencegateway,To set off this completer,this,explanation,we can use a,colon,.,Our math tutor wants just one thing from us,:,that we try our best.,These are the two main uses of the colon:,to set off,a list,or,an explanation,that we know is about to follow the main part of the sentence,.,The Colon:a sentencegateway,We also use the colon,to set off a formal quotation,.,My father was always using his favorite quotation from Yogi Berra,:,“It aint over till its over.”,The Colon:a sentencegateway,Just remember that you usually know what is going to follow a colon:,a list,an explanation,or a formal quotation,.,CONGRATULATIONS!,You have now mastered the uses of the colon,a very handy device in the punctuation of your sentences.Dont forget to take the quizzes on punctuation listed on the,Quiz List,page of the,Guide to Grammar and Writing,.,This PowerPoint presentation was created by,Charles Darling,PhD,Professor of English and Webmaster,Capital Community College,Hartford,Connecticut,copyright November 1999,