Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes. Do the check. Generate your APA citations for free! APA Citation Generator. Home Knowledge Base Language rules Semicolons ;. Semicolons ; Published on May 31, by Amy Luo. The film was shot in many stunning locations, including a castle in Heidelberg, Germany; the Great Mosque—also known as the Mezquita—in Cordoba, Spain; and a quaint village in Undredal, Norway. Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time; he holds 28 medals, 23 of which are gold.
Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time. He holds 28 medals, 23 of which are gold. Our holiday itinerary in London includes a walk along the canal, some musicals at the theatre, and a fancy meal at a restaurant. The spies would travel by land, in the cars of freight trains; by sea, in the hidden smuggling compartments of merchant vessels; and by air, in the guise of stewards and stewardesses.
A complex series contains internal punctuation. Semicolons help to clearly mark the break between each item in the series.
Today I met Linda, who is tall; Fred, who is a biology major; Amy, who likes to swim; and John, who has brown hair. Do NOT use a semicolon between an independent and a dependent clause one that cannot stand as a sentence on its own. Chief among these are however , therefore , hence , thus , consequently , nevertheless and meanwhile : Saturn was long thought to be the only ringed planet; however, this is now known not to be the case. The two warring sides have refused to withdraw from the airport; consequently aid flights have had to be suspended.
Observe that in these examples the sequence after the semicolon does constitute a complete sentence. And note particularly that the word however must be separated by a semicolon or a full stop from a preceding complete sentence; this is a very common mistake. There is one special circumstance in which a semicolon may be used to separate sequences which are not complete sentences. This occurs when a sentence has become so long and so full of commas that the reader can hardly be expected to follow it without some special marking.
In this case, we sometimes find semicolons used instead of commas to mark the most important breaks in the sentence: such semicolons are effectively being used to mark places where the reader can pause to catch his breath.
Consider the following example: In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, western aid workers, in spite of frantic efforts, are unable to operate, and the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighbouring Ethiopia.
There are two things to note in the examples below. First, each example contains two clauses. You shouldn't use this construction to connect more than two clauses. Second, you do not capitalize the first word in the second clause.
Let's take a look! You may also see colons come before a long list of items. Beyond that, they're also used after a formal introduction, as in "To Whom It May Concern:" For more information on all five rules, check out these 5 Rules of Colon Usage. Semicolons are one of the commonly misused members of the punctuation tribe. Just remember this main point: semicolons are used to offset two independent clauses.
Like colons, semicolons shouldn't be used to connect more than two clauses and you do not capitalize the first word of the second clause. That means they're to be used when you're dealing with two complete thoughts that could stand alone as a sentence. Why not use a period, then?
Semicolons represent two closely linked independent clauses. If one or both of the clauses isn't complete, consider using a colon instead. This may leave you wondering if you should use a colon or a semicolon to connect two independent clauses.
Here's a good rule of thumb. If the two clauses are merely related, not necessarily sequential in thought, use a semicolon. However, if the two related clauses follow a sequence of thought, use a colon.
There's also a smaller, yet important, role that semicolons play. That is, they stand in for commas in lists when commas alone would be confusing. Take a look at the examples below. Each item in the list contains commas itself, so using commas to separate the items would lead to ambiguity.
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