Grammar Greatness: the Semi-colon (when Commas and Full Stops breed).

Punctuation is simply how you make your writing read more like how you speak.

So how does the Semi-colon work – this odd-looking ;  hybrid love-child of a Comma below, and a Full Stop above?

Basically, the Semi-colon helps you glue together two closely connected ideas inside a sentence. The Semi-colon often works well if you can replace the Semi-colon (;) with an and (or other conjunctive word), instead, and your sentence still makes sense,

Examples

• We can visit the burger restaurant this week; maybe Friday will work well for you?
• Some customer like hot dogs; others prefer to chew down on a juicy hamburger.

Problems

You don’t usually CAPITALISE the first character after the semi-colon – treating it like the first word after a Full Stop (unless it’s something that’s always capitalised, like Peter, or America).

• So incorrect would be: Some customer like hot dogs; Others prefer to chew down on a juicy hamburger.
• Correct would be: Some customer like hot dogs; others prefer to chew down on a juicy hamburger.
• Also Correct would be: We can visit the burger restaurant this week; Friday might work well for you?

It’s also easy to incorrectly use the semi-colon when commas or colons are needed, instead – so watch out for that.

Tags: semi-colon

Category: Wizard of Words