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Anonymous Posted 5 years ago
Grammar

Colon or not?

Hello Teachers,

#1 He looked at me closely before uttering one word: Thief.

#2 He looked at me closely before uttering one word. Thief.

With or without a colon? I feel if it's just one word, without a colon (#2) would be fine. Like your thoughts on this, please.

Thanks.

  

Top answer

anonymous With or without a colon? " The colon drives a tack with a sledgehammer. We all know without the colon that the next word is the one he uttered.

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1 Answers
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anonymousWith or without a colon?

Like this:

He looked at me closely before uttering one word, "Thief."

The colon drives a tack with a sledgehammer. We all know without the colon that the next word is the one he uttered. Also, "thief" is a word as a word and takes quotation marks accordingly, which is convenient because it is actually dialogue.