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I've seen that each language has its own rules when using the colon. In Spanish, it's not needed to capitalize:

Los elementos incluyen: secado, lavado, etc.

In French is the same, and even they put the colon with an extra space:

Ces éléments comprennent : séchage, lavage, etc.

But in English I'm still not sure if one needs to capitalize or not as I've seen both ways and it's not clear to me when we use one and when the other.

Cyn
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Alejandro Marcos Aragon
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2 Answers2

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No, is not needed capitalize a word after a colon. Same as spanish.

I want the following: butter, sugar, and flour.

Read here the rules: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/colons.asp

Amanda
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Yes, it is necessary, if what follows the colon is a complete sentence. Punctuation that ends a previous sentence does not change the sentence capitalization rule.

Here is an example of a sentence that needs to start with a capital letter: This is a complete sentence that contains a subject and a verb.

user8356
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