Colon (punctuation) sounds can also be denoted by asterisks or other punctuation marks. Colons can also be used to represent eyes in emoticons. Colon (punctuation) The colon ( : ) is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line. A colon precedes an explanation or an enumeration, or list. A colon is also used with ratios, titles and subtitles of books, city and publisher in bibliographies, Biblical citations between chapter and verse, and for salutations business letters and other formal letter writing, and often to separate hours and minutes. The most common use of the
Punctuation of English would prefer coffee." The semicolon is also used to separate list items when the list items contain commas: ""She saw three men: Jamie, who came from New Zealand; John, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man."" The slash or stroke or solidus is often used to indicate alternatives, such as ""his/her"", or two equivalent meanings or spellings, such as ""grey/gray"". The slash is used in certain set phrases, such as the conjunction ""and/or"". Punctuation of English Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other than just the letters of