How to Use a Semicolon

The lonely, underused semicolon is probably the least understood form of punctuation. But by adhering to the suggestions below, you can start sprucing up your sentences with this useful mark of punctuation.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Dictionaries
• Notebook Papers
• Pens

1. Generally speaking, a semicolon is used to mark a discontinuity or pause in a sentence for which a comma is not strong enough. For example, "He couldn't find his calculus book, his notes or his calculator; he was going to fail his math test."

2. When two independent clauses are combined into a single sentence without a conjunction (and, or, but) connecting them, a semicolon usually works. For example, "I hated history in high school; I liked English."

3. Even if the two independent clauses are connected by a conjunction, you may use a semicolon rather than a comma to separate them if the clauses are long or themselves full of commas. For example, "Mr. Ring, who taught trigonometry, American history and advanced basket weaving, entertained his students by juggling, yodeling and dancing the merengue; but the principal didn't appreciate his unusual methods and canned him."

4. If commas are used in a sentence to separate items in a list, the semicolon is often useful to mark a more significant break in continuity. For example, "In her report she listed the populations of San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, California; and Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas."

Tips & Warnings

• When a semicolon follows quoted matter, the semicolon goes outside the quotation marks. For example, "She yelled 'Watch out!'; the school bus driver was barreling toward the kindergarteners."