The colon (:) marks a bigger pause than that is expressed by the semicolon. It is sometimes used with a dash after it.

• We cancelled our decision to go on a holiday: we had too little money.
• Jane had to be hospitalized: she had heart trouble.

Direct speech

A colon is used when famous sayings are quoted.

• Bacon says: ‘Reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, speaking a ready man.’

A colon is also used when direct speech is introduced by a name.

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.

In other cases, direct speech is usually introduced by a comma.

• Peter looked at the photo and said, ‘Who is this beautiful girl?’

Lists

A colon can introduce a list.

• The three tenses are: the present tense, the past tense and the future tense.
• We need three kinds of support: financial, political and moral.

In a title or heading, a colon is often used to introduce a subdivision of a subject.

• Tenses: the present tense
• Punctuation: colon

Capital letters

In British English, we do not normally use a capital letter after a colon. In American English, colons are more often followed by capital letters.

• Verbs: transitive verbs (GB)
• Verbs: Transitive verbs (US)