Punctuation mark
 

Anyone got any idea what this following punctuation mark is called? Im sure its not just a colon.

:-


Ta very much.

Nev.

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Well I'm not 100% on this but I think that is two punctuation marks: it would be a colon and a hyphen - I don't think together they are actually gramatically correct, although frequently used, if that makes sense.

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Clippies is correct. :)

Re: Punctuation mark
 

is it supposed to represent some face or something :o
not sure what though :D

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Ah that's good then :)

See my midlands education wasn't so bad :D

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Awroit, chick! :p

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Yep, that's right :)
j

Re: Punctuation mark
 

And a hyphen shouldn't be used when you mean to use em-dashes or en-dashes—if you know what I mean.

Experiment (this may not work on all keyboards):

Press the "minus" key. That's a hyphen. Twentieth-century.

Hold ALT and press 0150 on the number keypad. That's an en-dash. Pages 1–10.

Hold ALT and press 0151 on the number keypad. That's an em-dash—for what it's worth. This used to be represented by two hypens. Try it in Microsoft word (no spaces between words). Depending on your settings you may see it gets changed.

They're all different lengths and never have spaces before or after them.

An en-dash is the width of the letter "N" and is traditionally the width of a typesetter's letter "N". An em-dash the width of the letter "M".

The :- does not mean anything as far as punctuation is concerned—you use one or the other. It's more of an emoticon.

Sorry :zzz:

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Nice one. :)

Re: Punctuation mark
 

All originating from the old moveable lead type used on Guttenberg's presses. :D :zzz:

Re: Punctuation mark
 

I was taught it is correct to use :- before a list.

Re: Punctuation mark
 

God bless them teachers! :p

Re: Punctuation mark
 

Not to worry, you seem to have survived so far ;)

Re: Punctuation mark
 

I read in the back of a dictionary that you should use a colon before a list then semicolon to separate the listed items with "and" before the last one. Eg

Sports I like:
Football;
Cricket;
AFL; and
Rugby League.

Re: Punctuation mark
 

I hope you weren't taught to say "Sports I like" though :D