英语中冒号主要用在一系列并列事物、引语或补充说明成分的前面(A punctuation mark (:) used to precede a list of items, a quotation, or an expansion or explanation.)。冒号多用于正式而庄重的话题中。
逗号常见的用法有:
这种情况往往是用在两句话中,后一句话对前一句话进行拓展、补充(between two main clauses in cases where the second clause explains or follows from the first)。如:
That is the secret of my extraordinary life: always do the unexpected.
It wasn’t easy: to begin with, I had to find the right house.
第1句中的“always do the unexpected”和第2句中的“to begin with, I had to find the right house”就是对前句内容的补充说明。
这种情况往往是指当后面有一系列事物并列出现时(to introduce a list),这些并列的事物都是以单词或短语的形式出现。如:
The price includes the following: travel to London, flight to Venice, hotel accommodation, and excursions.
The job calls for skills in the following areas: proofing, editing, and database administration.
第1句中的“travel to London, flight to Venice, hotel accommodation, and excursions”是用来列举说明前文中的the price所包含的内容。
第2句中的“proofing, editing, and database administration”是用来列举说明前文中的the skills的具体内容。
这种情况是指用在引文或引语前(before a quotation, and sometimes before direct speech)。如:
The headline read: ‘Taxi Driver Battles Gangsters’.
They shouted: ‘Our families are starving! We need land!’
第1句中的冒号是用来引出标题内容的,而第2句的冒号是用来引出直接引语的。
但是,这种情况多见于较为正式的书面语中。否则,引文或引语前一般都用逗号。
冒号也常用于时间或比例的表达中(A colon used in various technical and formulaic contexts, for example a statement of proportion between two numbers, or to separate hours from minutes (and minutes from seconds) in a numerical statement of time)。如:
时间:10:30
比例:2:3
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