What does colon mean?
Word: Colon
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Colon means a punctuation mark made of two dots, one above the other, used before a list, an example or an explanation.
How do you spell colon?
Syllables: co - lon
Tricky part: Both vowels in this word are o. Because the second one is said softly, pupils often write an a or an e there instead.
Watch out for: colan, colen
Memory tip: A colon has two round dots, so give the word two round o's.
Colon in a sentence
Example 1: Write a colon after the word 'need', then list what you will bring.
Example 2: Arjun forgot the colon in his heading, so his teacher added it in red.
Example 3: The recipe began with a colon and a list of everything we would use.
Fun Fact
Digital clocks put a colon between the hours and the minutes, so a time like 7:45 shows one every day.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our teacher asked us to put a collon before the list of fruits in each sentence.
a) fruits
b) before
c) collon
d) teacher
Show answer
c) collon. A single l sits between the two vowels of colon, just as in solo and polo.
Word Makeup
Choose the prefix that completes the word:
colon
a) cemi
b) semmi
c) semy
d) semi
Show answer
d) semi. Half a circle is a semicircle, and a dot above a comma is a semicolon.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
nlcoo
a) colony
b) clown
c) colon
d) cocoa
Show answer
c) colon. With two o's, an l, an n and no y, w or a, these letters make just one word.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) apostrofe
b) brakets
c) colon
d) exclamasion
Show answer
c) colon. Apostrophe uses ph for its f sound, exclamation ends in tion, and brackets has a c before the k.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Riya writes 'There is one thing I want for my birthday' and then puts a colon. What should come next?
a) a question about the weather
b) the name of the thing she wants
c) the date of her last birthday
d) a full stop and nothing else
Show answer
b) the name of the thing she wants
2. Which sentence uses a colon correctly?
a) We packed three snacks: crisps, apples and biscuits.
b) We packed three: snacks crisps, apples and biscuits.
c) We packed: three snacks crisps, apples and biscuits.
d) We: packed three snacks, crisps, apples and biscuits.
Show answer
a) We packed three snacks: crisps, apples and biscuits.
