Best Skin Care Products For Women: What’s the correct way to use a semicolon?

Daily edition

What's the correct way to use a semicolon?

So many people are afraid to use a semicolon because they don't understand the rules, but this punctuation mark is actually simple to use. Follow these rules to use the semicolon correctly every time.

S emicolons are often misunderstood, much like an angsty teen or the ending of The Sopranos. The semicolon is a useful punctuation mark that allows writers to express their ideas in more meaningful ways. Given its appearance, it should come as no surprise that its usage falls somewhere between a period and a comma.

There are three main ways to use semicolons, the most common of which is to connect two independent sentences that are part of the same thought. Here's a pair of sentences that could benefit from a semicolon: The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed. It's an aquatic mammal.

Notice that while each sentence has the components of a complete sentence and can exist as an independent thought, the second sentence is quite abrupt. The flow leaves something to be desired. However, if you add a semicolon (The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed; it's an aquatic mammal), the two independent clauses form a more interesting sentence.

There are several do's and don'ts to follow with semicolons. Never use a capital letter immediately after a semicolon unless the word is a proper noun, and don't use a conjunction ("and," "or," "but," etc.) either. Do, however, consider adding an adverb to add a bit of flourish to your writing: The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed; interestingly, it's an aquatic mammal. (Proceed with caution, as we shared advice in a recent edition on how to judiciously employ adverbs.)

The second way to use a semicolon is when writing out lists that already include several commas. In the following example, the city/state combos already have commas, so the added semicolons make the overall sentence more clear: My favorite U.S. cities are New Orleans, Louisiana; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; and Paris, Texas.

A third usage for a semicolon is the cheekiest, as it forms the eyes of the winking emoticon ;). Perhaps these old-school text smileys have been overshadowed by fancier emojis, but I'm holding on to the :) and ;) as long as I can.

Thanks for supporting our sponsors! They help keep Word Smarts free for everyone.

Emoji Decoded

Have you read?

What Did English Sound Like 200 Years Ago?

The English of 200 years ago would sound remarkably familiar to modern speakers. Let's explore how the American accent evolved and how things were different in the 1820s.