Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson.

This revision lesson is going to cover lots of different types of punctuation, and I think we're going to learn a lot.

So, let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called colons, semi-colons, hyphens, and bullet points revision, and it comes from my unit called "Review," including word class, sentence types, tense, commas, and colons.

By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to practise colons, semi-colons, hyphens, and bullet points test questions.

As you know, when we're using punctuation marks, it's really important to know which punctuation mark we need to use and where to place it correctly.

So, we're going to practise that skill with several different types of punctuation mark, and I think it's going to be really useful for you.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Colon, semi-colon, hyphen, and bullet points.

Well done.

Now, a colon is a piece of punctuation placed after a complete sentence to introduce a list, question, or explanation.

A semi-colon is a piece of punctuation that can join two closely-related main clauses or separate items in a detailed list.

A hyphen is a piece of punctuation that can join two or more words or parts of words together, and bullet points are punctuation marks that lay out key information clearly in a non-fiction text.

Here's our lesson outline for today.

We're going to start off by looking at colons and bullet points, and then we'll move on to looking at semi-colons and hyphens in the second part of our lesson.

So, a colon can be used to introduce a list or a pair of items. Here are some examples.

"Our school has a wide range of afterschool activities: art, cookery basketball and trampolining." And notice how we follow the normal rule for using commas in the list there.

We've got commas between the items, but not before and between the last two items. Here's another example.

"We bought lots of items for the new school year: pencils, pens, paper, a rucksack and new plimsolls." And finally, "I have two favourite subjects: PE and English." Now, that's not really a list, it's just two items, so we just have and between them.

Now, what comes before the colon should always be a complete sentence.

For instance, "We bought lots of items for the new school year" is a complete sentence.

It could just have a full stop at the end, but because we're using it to introduce a list, we have the colon at the end, but we must have a complete sentence before the colon.

And a colon can also introduce a question.

For example, "As I ran, I thought of only one thing: would I escape the maze or would I be lost forever?" So can you insert a colon into each sentence in the correct position to show where the list should begin? Remember, there should be a complete sentence before the colon.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done.

Great job.

So in a, we've got the complete sentence.

There are three things I want for Christmas, and then, we have the list beginning, so the colon should go after Christmas.

In b, we've got the complete sentence.

I've been working particularly hard on two things this year, so the colon should go there to introduce the list, my handwriting and my timetables.

Again, not really a list so we just have and between those two items In c, we have the full sentence.

A huge number of languages are spoken at our school: so we put the colon there to introduce this list.

Really well done if you're remembered to have a complete sentence before the colon.

Great job.

Now another way of presenting a list is to use bullet points after a colon or after a sub-heading.

So, we could write a list like this with a colon and commas, just like we've just see.

"The body of an inset is split into three parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen." So here, we have a complete sentence before our colon and then we have the list.

But we could show that with bullet points like this.

We've still got the same complete sentence before the colon, but now we've separated the three items in the list, and we put bullet points with them on each on a new line.

So here, there's still a complete sentence, but the items are easier to read now.

We no longer use and between the last two items. We just have them on three separate lines.

Now, we could do that with a subheading instead of that complete sentence before the colon.

We've just written insect body parts, we've underlined it and we don't have a colon after that subheading.

So we could have a complete sentence before a colon or we could have a subheading, and then we have our bullet point list.

Notice how it doesn't have 'and'.

So, how could this list be presented using bullet points instead of in the way we've shown it? Pull the video and think how you would lay it out using bullet points.

Have a think.

Well done.

Great effort.

So, hopefully, you thought of something like this.

We've kept the same complete sentence before the colon.

"To make the perfect cup of tea, you will need the following:" then we have the colon and then we have now the item separated out into separate lines with each line beginning with a bullet point and we don't have and between those last two items. Now, if these items in the list were complete sentences, we'd use capital letters in full stops.

At the minute, they're not so we haven't done that.

But the main thing with bullet points is to just make sure you're consistent.

Every item in the list should look the same.

So if it starts with a capital letter, so should the next item in the list.

If it's a full sentence, the next item should also be a full sentence.

We have to be consistent.

Now colons have another use, which is to introduce an explanation.

For example, "The queue was enormous: the game that was being released was very popular." Can you see how the second part of the sentence after the colon explains the first part? It explains why the queue is so big.

Here's another example.

"It's an absolute bargain: usually, these costs 300 pounds." The second part explains why it's a bargain.

Here's another one.

"Everyone loved Laura's laugh: it was incredibly infectious." So the second part explains why people love Laura's laugh.

So, in this case, the words on both sides of the colon could be a sentence on their own.

They are both complete sentences and the part after the colon must explain why.

So, for instance, I could start with this complete sentence.

"We were all shivering," and I could ask, "Well, why were we shivering?" And maybe the answer is, "We were all shivering: snow was falling heavily from the sky." Snow was falling heavily from the sky is a complete sentence.

We have a complete sentence on either side of that colon.

Here's another example.

"We were all shivering: Dad wouldn't turn the heating on." Again, we have an explanation after the colon for what comes before we're answering that question why.

And we have a complete sentence on both sides of the colon when we're using it to introduce an explanation in this way.

So, where could a colon be inserted into each of these sentences in the correct position to show that explanation? Pause the video and have a careful think remembering that you'll need a complete sentence on either side of the colon now that we're making an explanation.

Have a go.

Well done.

Good effort.

So in a, we've got our complete sentence, "Sofia practises her times tables every night." And then after the colon, we have the explanation.

Why does she do that? "She really wants to succeed in the test." And again, that's a complete sentence.

For b, we've got the complete sentence, "France is not as far away as people think." And then the explanation.

We've got, "In places, it is only 21 miles from the British coast." So the colon goes after that first complete sentence.

And then for c, I've got, "I find sewing very difficult." That's the first complete sentence.

What comes after explains why.

"It's so hard to keep the thread in the needle." So in each case we've got a complete sentence either side of the colon, and the second one explains the first one.

Great job if you got those in the right place.

Now, we've talked about colon so far, and we've talked about how colons can be used to introduce an explanation.

Dashes can also be used to introduce an explanation in exactly the same way as a colon.

So wherever you use a colon to introduce an explanation, you could also do the same with a dash.

For instance, "I can't wait for the sequel - that story was fantastic." We've got two complete sentences on either side of the dash, the second one explains the first one.

This explains why I can't wait for the sequel because that previous story was so fantastic.

Here's another one.

"Miss O'Neill is a great teacher - she always makes everything interesting and she is calm under pressure." So that second complete sentence explains the first one, explains why Miss O'Neill is such a great teacher.

Here's another example.

"The church needs some serious investment - some of the roof tiles are missing and the pews are falling apart." So that second complete sentence explains the first, explains why the church needs that serious investment.

So as with colons, we need a complete sentence either side of the dash and the second part answers that question why.

For instance, "It was a great day," is a complete sentence.

Why was it a great day? "It was a great day - we were heading off on residential." We have two complete sentences where the second one explains why about the first one.

So which of these sentences uses dashes correctly to introduce an explanation? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good job.

So if we look at a, it says, "She loves Maths, there is always - a right answer." We don't have a complete sentence on either side, so no, that's not correct.

B is correct.

"She loves Maths" as a complete sentence, and, "There is always a right answer" is a complete sentence that explains why she loves Maths.

C is not correct.

It says, 'Our school is very popular, it has -" That is not a complete sentence before that dash.

Instead, we need this.

"Our school is very popular -" Now we've got two complete sentences where the second one explains the first one.

Great job if you spotted this.

So, let's do our first task for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences and I want you to add colons or dashes as appropriate to these sentences.

Remember, colons can introduce a list or a question, and colons or dashes can introduce an explanation.

So if you think there's a list or a question, you're going to need to choose a colon.

If you think there's an explanation, you can choose to use either colon or a dash.

Here are the sentences.

Pause the video and choose the right punctuation or an appropriate piece of punctuation in each case.

Have a go.

Well done.

Great job.

So here are the sentences punctuated correctly.

But remember, whenever I've used a dash, you could choose to use a colon to introduce the explanation instead.

And that might be the case vice versa as well.

Let's talk about it.

So in the first one I've said, "I have two key ambitions in life: to have a family and to live by the sea." Now here, I've used a colon to introduce, not really a list but a pair of items. So, a colon's most appropriate there.

In b, I've written, "The British government had to introduce rationing: many supply ships were sunk by the Nazis." Now, this is introducing an explanation.

The second complete sentence explains why they had to introduce rationing.

So you could choose a dash there if you want.

For c, I've written this.

"There are four countries in the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland." This is, I'm sure you know just a list.

So here, a colon is appropriate.

And I've got a complete sentence before the colon.

For d, I've written, "We were all devastated when her teacher said she was leaving - she has improved the school so much." So this is an explanation where the second complete sentence explains the first.

You could choose to use a colon instead.

And the last one, I used a dash as well.

"I was in shock - we had won!" Two complete sentences, the second one explains the first, so it's an explanation, and you could use a colon instead, if you prefer.

Really well done, if you chose the correct punctuation for these sentences.

Good job.

So we've talked about colons and bullet points so far.

Let's move on to talking about semi-colons and hyphens.

Now, we can use semi-colons to join closely related sentences together to increase text cohesion.

That means the flow of our writing.

For instance, here are two separate sentences.

"The match was very rough.

Aisha injured her shoulder." Now I could join those with a semi-colon because they're closely related.

The fact that Aisha injured her shoulder is very closely related to the fact that the match was rough.

That's probably what caused Aisha to injure her shoulder.

So notice how now they are one sentence instead of two.

We've taken two complete sentences and we've joined them with a semi-colon to make a one sentence.

Now, in this case, we still have a capital letter after that semi-colon because Aisha is a proper noun, but that wouldn't always be the case.

Now let's say we're given a sentence and we're asked to add a semi-colon into it, but we can tell where to place semi-colon by looking for those complete sentences because there must be a complete sentence on either side of the semi-colon.

So let's look at this unpunctuated sentence.

"I really recommend this restaurant.

It has a fantastic selection of dishes." So where are the complete sentences here? Well, there's one here.

"I really recommend this restaurant," and there's one here.

"It has a fantastic selection of dishes." So, I could put the semi-colon between those two because a semi-colon joins closely related sentences to make a one sentence.

And look how this time we don't have a capital after that semi-colon because this is one sentence and because it is not a proper noun.

So, can you insert a semi-colon in the correct place in the sentences below? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good effort.

So in a, we have a complete sentence, "Andeep is the star of our rugby team." So that's where I'm going to put the semi-colon, and after it I've got another complete sentence.

"He is also very professional at cricket." Two sentences, joined with the semi-colon.

In b, I have the complete sentence.

"My older sister is in the army." And then I have a second one after that semi-colon I've added in.

In c, I have the complete sentence.

"We held our Leavers' Assembly in the village hall." And then the second complete sentence would be, "All the parents were crying and it was very embarrassing." I've got two complete sentences joined with a semi-colon.

Really well done if you spotted this.

Now, semi-colons have a second use.

They can also be used to separate items in a detailed list where the items themselves already contain commas.

Let me show you what I mean.

"We saw some incredible creatures in the rainforest:" So, I'm still introducing a list with a colon here.

After the colon, I've written this.

"Bright, gaudy parrots; mischievous, furry monkeys; and tiny, poisonous frogs." So, we've got three items on our list there.

Bright, gaudy parrots; mischievous, furry monkeys; and tiny, poisonous frogs.

Now here, each of those three items already contains a comma between bright and gaudy, between mischievous and furry, between tiny and poisonous.

So using a comma to separate the items as well wouldn't work.

We'd have a confusing amount of commas, so we use semi-colons instead.

Here's another example.

"The explorer unpacked the items from her bag: an old leather-bound book; a tatty, stained map; and a battered, plastic radio.

Again, each item in the list already has a comma in it so I've used semi-colons to separate those items. And there's still a complete sentence before that colon.

"The explorer unpack the items from her bag," could be a complete sentence.

And notice this, we now have, when we use semi-colons in a list, a semi-colon before and, so that's a slightly unusual idea because usually we're used to not having a comma beforehand.

But if we've got a list using semi-colons, we have a semi-colon beforehand.

So, that's something to remember.

So which of these sentences uses colons and semi-colons correctly to punctuate a list? Pause the video and have a careful look.

Well done.

Good job.

Hopefully, you spotted the error in a.

This one's not correctly punctuated.

We have a colon after complete sentence, that's good, but we don't have a semi-colon before and, at the end of that list.

B is also not correctly punctuated because here, we've missed out the colon after that complete sentence to introduce the list.

C is correct because we have a colon after complete sentence to introduce the list, and we have two semi-colons to separate those list items that themselves contain commas.

That's why we need that semi-colon.

And remember, when we're using the semi-colons on the list, we do use one beforehand.

Really well done if you spotted that.

Now we've talked about semi-colons.

Let's move on to hyphens.

A hyphen is similar to a dash in its appearance, but it has no spaces around it.

And that's because a hyphen is used to join two words or parts of words.

Here are some examples.

We often use hyphens in numbers.

"Fifty-five, two hundred and forty-one." In fact, all the numbers between 21 and 99, which aren't tens numbers like 20, 30, 40 will include a hyphen to join the two words together.

And when you use those numbers as part of bigger numbers like 7,397, that 97 will include a hyphen no matter how big your number gets.

We also use hyphens with ages.

"Three-year-old son, two-month-old baby." And with some nouns like the "run-up to Christmas" or the "vice-captain of the team." Can you see how we're using the hyphen here to join two or more words together? We also use hyphens to create compound adjectives.

That's where we're joining two words to describe a noun like "blood-soaked clothing, mud-covered car, guilt-ridden conscience, barely-audible voice." And if you think we would normally separate two adjectives with a comma, but that won't work in these examples.

We wouldn't say blood, soaked clothing, because what makes this an adjective is joining those two words together with the hyphen.

So it's a compound adjective, and it needs a hyphen and not a comma in this case.

Another use of a hyphen is in prefixes.

Now, not all prefixes have a hyphen after them, but some do.

For instance, "pre-existing injury, non-alcoholic beer, co-worker, ex-boyfriend." Can you see how here we don't have two words joined together but a prefix joined onto another word? So the prefix pre is joined to the word existing using that hyphen.

So there are lots of uses of hyphens, which we need to try and wrap our heads around.

So see if you can add hyphens to each of these sentences where they're needed.

And you might notice.

there might be a couple in these sentences.

Pause the video and have a careful look.

Well done.

Good work.

So in a, we've got in-depth and life-threatening, and we're joining those together.

So we've got a hyphen joining two words together in both those cases.

In b, we've got three words joined with hyphens here, four-month-old and then we've got self-conscious.

In c, we've got non-stop, that's a prefix non join to that word stop, and non-negotiable.

So another prefix, non, joined to the word negotiable.

And indeed, we've got rain-splattered, that's a compound adjective describing the windows and heart-rending, another compound adjective describing the film.

Really well done if you spotted all of those.

So, let's do our final task for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some short passages of text and I want you to add hyphens and semi-colons to these passages wherever they're appropriate, and you might need to also add one colon.

So remember, hyphens join words and parts of words together, and semi-colons have two functions.

They can separate items in a detailed list where the items themselves contain commas, or they can join complete sentences together to improve our text flow, our text cohesion.

So, here are your three passages.

Decide where we should add hyphens and semi-colons, and perhaps one colon as well.

Pause the video and have a try.

Fantastic effort.

There was a lot to think about there.

So here are the sentences with the hyphens, semi-colons and a colon added in.

In the first one, we've said ink-stained as a compound adjective with a hyphen, and up-to-date there as well with two hyphens to join three words together.

And I've also got a hyphen with that prefix pre, joined to the word war.

Now I have a semi-colon here to join together two complete sentences.

"With ink-stained fingers, I examined the up-to-date map," is a complete sentence.

And then, "I knew the pre-war weapon store must be nearby," is also a complete sentence, they have been joined together.

Let's look at b.

"As a man-eating tiger leapt from the bushes, I froze; all my self-confidence had vanished instantly." Again, these are two complete sentences.

We've joined them with that semi-colon and I've got my two hyphens as well, man-eating and self-confidence.

For c, I've got the colon I needed.

"We saw incredible things in the forest:" It's introducing a detailed list.

"A small multi-colored frog; a sleek, spotted leopard; and a silent, sharp-clawed jaguar." So notice those compound adjectives made with hyphens, multi-colored and sharp-clawed as well.

We needed semi-colons on this list because each of the list items already contains a comma and notice that semi-colon before and at the end of that list.

Really good job.

You've managed to add all those punctuation marks into those sentences.

Great work.

Let's review our learning in this lesson.

We said that colons can be used to introduce a list or a question, and in each case there must be a complete sentence before the colon.

We also said that a list of items can also be presented using bullet points.

We said that colons can also introduce an explanation, and that dashes can be used for the same purpose, also, after a complete sentence.

We said that semi-colons can be used to join two complete sentences or to separate items in a detailed list that already uses commas.

And we said that a hyphen can be used to join two or more words or parts of words together.

We've covered a huge amount of material in this lesson, and I'm really pleased with how hard you've worked.

Great work, and I hope to see you again in another lesson.

Goodbye.