Colon (punctuation): form, function, and usage

The colon is counted as a mid-sentence character, like the comma or the semicolon. It is placed within a sentence structure; however, a main clause can precede or follow the colon. On the other hand, it can never be placed at the end of a (logical) paragraph.

Before the literal (direct) speech

... and before a thought quoted verbatim in quotation marks after the announcement sentence:

• I said, "What is not, may yet be."
• The mother thought, "I'll stay home."

Before enumerations and explanations

... if they are announced in advance:

• "The four cardinal points are: East, West, South, North."
• "The lunar eclipse can be explained something like this: The shadow of the earth falls on the moon; the moon is therefore totally or partially eclipsed."

We're hiring:

• "Buyers"
• "Clerks"
• "Programmers"

The colon as an announcement sign is dispensable and should be omitted if the enumeration is already preceded by another form of announcement. These are formulations such as "therefore", "especially", "by name", "namely", "how", "for example", "and indeed", "that implies", "that is", "among other things", "among others" - "The ship only operates on three days, namely Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday."

Note on bulleted lists:

If the sentence reads "The four cardinal points are east, west, south and north", then a colon can - but does not have to - be placed before the listed terms. Example: "The four cardinal points are(:) east, west, south, and north." If the conjunction is missing (here: and), a colon must be placed.

Often before conclusions, statements

... if they constitute an explanation or a summary:

• "In the end, it turned out that the report was completely fabricated."
• "Cattle and horses, sheep and goats, pigs and poultry: everything can be found on this farm."

Between an extensive, multiple

... prefix and a suffix:

• "Cars honking, streetcars screeching, motorcycles rattling and rattling, trucks roaring: This is the melody of the big city."

Before announced

... signatures, report card grades, appraisal notes, schedule times, and the like.

• "The head man: Karl Seeger - German: very good - Style: could be more fluent. - 13:20 (point is also possible: 13:20)."

upper and lower case

The colon is normally followed by a capital letter if an independent clause follows.

• He told his wife, "If you don't stop reading Wikipedia, I'm going to divorce you."
• "Shocked, he entered his charred library: all the books had been destroyed."

If the colon could be replaced by a dash, lower case is also allowed for independent clauses.

In all other cases, lowercase is used unless the colon is directly followed by a noun.

• "He called them all together: his cook, his wife, and her lover."
• "In Hamburg she found what she had longed for: an underground villa."

Headlines

Within headings, a colon is placed according to the above rules. At the end of headings, a colon seems generally superfluous, because headings are clearly distinguished from the body text by their graphic design and their announcing function is sufficiently recognizable. A colon is only used as a mid-sentence character where the announcing and the announced part of the text are perceived as belonging relatively closely together, both graphically and in terms of content.

The so-called gender colon is used as a means of gender-equitable spelling in order to express the linguistic equal treatment and inclusion of all genders and genders typographically: Lehrer:innen, ein:e Schüler:in. The singular can also be used to describe a diverse-gendered or non-binary person who is neither a man nor a woman: Alex is artist:in.

Compared to gender asterisks (teachers) and gender gaps (teachers), the colon has the advantage of being easily read by screen readers, because after the colon there is a small pause in speech, like before a list; this "gender pause" prevents the expression from being read as a generic feminine form (teachers). For this reason, the Hanseatic City of Lübeck introduced the "Gender:colon" for internal and external communication of the city administration at the end of 2019; some universities and several media editorial offices followed suit (list).

However, the use of the colon inside the word is not part of the official spelling. The Rechtschreibduden of August 2020 lists the colon as a possibility of "gender-appropriate language use".