The Semicolon

The semicolon is a pesky piece of punctuation, indicating a pause somewhere between a comma and a period. Semicolons should be used sparingly. Think of them as a spice. A little adds nice flavor, but you wouldn’t want to make an entire meal out of them.

Semicolons are generally used to separate two independent clauses, which simply means the two parts could exist on their own.

If you were to read these two sentences aloud, it might sound like:

Tanya eats a lot of peanut butter. <TAKE A BREATH> She owns an entire library of books dedicated to the peanut.

With a semicolon, you would say it without a breath, and you wouldn’t need connector words like ‘and,’ ‘but,’ ‘or’, either.

Get it?

Try these:

I drank a quart of chicken broth; I hope I don’t sprout feathers.

She sells seashells by the seashore; it doesn’t seem a very profitable activity.

When in Rome do what the Romans do; I suppose they eat pizza, pasta, and pesto.

You can use semicolons in other ways:

• Before words like namely, however, therefore, etc., when they introduce a complete sentence (e.g. Bring any two people; however, Jim and Tammy Bakker are not invited.)

• To separate parts of a list when one or more contain commas (e.g. The wedding has guests from Middletown, New York; Springfield, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and other places as well.)

• Between independent clauses joined by a connector, such as ‘and,’ ‘but,’ or, ‘nor,’ etc., when one or more commas appear in the first clause. (e.g. When I arrive, and I will soon, I'll be glad to help; and that is a promise.)