英语语法专家张道真教授在《英语语法大全》（下）第515页指出英语冒号有七种用法：
1. 用在一个严肃的长引语前 (在一般短的引语前用逗号)：
Bacon said：“Reading makes a full man, …”
2. 用在正式信函的称呼语后 (在非正式信函中用逗号)：
Dear Sir：
3. 用在总称之后，后面跟有例子：
He has many books：Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Don Quixote, and others.
Correct the following words：childs, mouses, oxes.
Our question：Why (or why) should man kill himself?
My opinion is this：Nobody thinks himself a bad man.
4. 用在举例后，后面跟总称：
The sea, the sky, the ship：(或—) these are all I see.
To work, to sleep, and to play：(或—) all these are essential things in life.
5. 用在表示著作、时间等的词语内，把较大和较小单位分开：
Macbeth Ⅳ:1:12
Matthew Ⅴ:5
6:35 a. m.
6. 用在比例中：
1:3:8 (=The ratio of one to three to eight)
7. 用在标题和副标题之间：
Yiching：the Philosophy of Change