Template:Colon/doc
Usage
Use it to generate the language-dependant punctuation signs that is used like an English colon, for example between an introducing sentence or label and a complement such as one or more values or a detailing sentence.
- By default, it is rendered according to the content language of the current page (see Template:Tls) so it will work in translated subpages.
- If you want to use it in a multilingual page, you'll need to specify the language code in parameter 1 (or
uselang). - If you use this template to display a plain ASCII colon (:) that you don't want to be interpreted by MediaWiki as a definition list item (or indented block), specify the "en" language code in parameter 1. (Note that this colon will be returned followed by an ASCII space.)
Examples
- In English,
German{{colon|en}}Spanish{{stop|en}}gives- German: Spanish.
- In French,
allemand{{colon|fr}}espagnol{{stop|fr}}gives- allemand : espagnol.
- In Arabic,
الألمانية{{colon|ar}}الإسبانية{{stop|ar}}gives- الألمانية: الإسبانية.
- In Armenian,
գերմաներեն{{colon|hy}}իսպաներեն{{stop|hy}}gives- գերմաներեն. իսպաներեն։
- In Khmer,
អាល្លឺម៉ង់{{colon|km}}អេស្ប៉ាញ{{stop|km}}gives- អាល្លឺម៉ង់៖ អេស្ប៉ាញ.
- In Chinese,
德语{{colon|zh}}西班牙语{{stop|zh}}gives- 德语： 西班牙语 。
Warnings
- Don't insert any space after it (this template will insert the word separator conditionally, but the colon returned in Chinese is a wide version and requires no extra space after it). Some languages also don't want any space in the same paragraph (they don't separate words by spaces).
- ASCII colons not followed by a space are used in Swedish in the middle of words, in a way similar to the apostrophe for English genitives.
- Be careful in Armenian, because the ASCII colon followed by a space is interpreted as a full stop terminating the sentence, but not introducing one or more values or another sentence (the roles of full stop and colons are swapped in Armenian!).
- Also in Khmer which has signs combining to the left of letters or at end of words, looking like a regular English colon but playing a different role in Khmer.
See also