Improving Your Grammar Skills: Understanding the Use of Colons
Grammar problem
There were many animals in the barnyard. Chickens, pigs, sheep, and geese barnyard, chickens barnyard: chickens barnyard chickens
Correct as is?
Answer:Not correct. There were many animals in the barnyard: chickens, pigs, sheep, and geese.
Explanation:
The column after "barnyard" shows a series of items will be listed or follow. Colons indicate or announce explanation or examples after an independent clause. For example, when we want to give examples or offer an explanation after saying "It should happen this way:", the items that follow in this fashion will be written after a colon since they come after something like an announcement.
Should the sentence be corrected to "There were many animals in the barnyard: chickens, pigs, sheep, and geese"? Yes, the sentence should be corrected to "There were many animals in the barnyard: chickens, pigs, sheep, and geese."