Hyphens are the short lines that we put between the words in expressions like ex-boyfriend and non-alignment.

Two-part adjectives
The hyphen is used in two-part adjectives when the second part ends in -ed or -ing.

The colon (:)
The colon is almost always used after a complete sentence. It is used to indicate that what follows is an explanation of what precedes.
These are the things we need to buy: four chairs, one table, two fans and a mixer grinder.
The problem is this: which came first, the hen or the egg.
The conclusion we have arrived at is: if we want peace we must be prepared for war.

The term punctuation refers to the conventional system of marks used in writing. Punctuation marks are used to display and clarify the structure of the text. In this post we explain the uses of full stop, comma and semicolon.