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Grammar
Introduction to the semicolon
Paige introduces a piece of punctuation called the semicolon; this punctuation can link closely related independent clauses together in a sentence. Created by David Rheinstrom.
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so its basically the "semicolon" is used is link two sentences but those sentences can stand on their own.
example
I hate peanut butter; I'm allergic to peanut butter
I'm, not really :)(14 votes)
You are grammatically correct. But I think you should not use a semicolon in this case. It would sound better, differentiated. But if you want to use the comma, you should write it this way: I hate peanut butter; I am allergic to it. Without the semicolon, you could write it like this: I hate peanut butter, for I am allergic to it. Or in this way: I hate peanut butter because I am allergic to it.(6 votes)
- Are you supposed to capitalize the first word after the semicolon, or do you leave it lowercased? Does it even matter?(11 votes)
it should be lowercased and yes it does matter(1 vote)
When connecting two independent clauses, is it better to choose semicolon or colon?
For example, in the following sentence,Spain is a beautiful country (?) the beaches are warm, sandy and spotlessly clean.should I choose semicolon or a colon?(4 votes)
You should use the semicolon. This is because semicolons are mainly used to link to closely related ideas that can stand on their own as individual senteces. (independent clauses). So the correct sentence would be:
Spain is a beautiful country; the beaches are warm, sandy, and spotlessly clean.
Hope that helps!
Eric M.(13 votes)
- Can't we just use commas. Why is English so confusing?(5 votes)
Commas are the most useful punctuation mark. But sometimes you need something more powerful, and other times something even MORE powerful. That's why there are semicolons and colons.
It's kind of like in church. Singing to a guitar is nice, but some songs really require a piano, and at other times, we need to be blasted with a pipe organ.(5 votes)
Can't we use a comma instead of a semicolon?(3 votes)- Commas and semicolons are very similar, but each have their own functions. I like to think of the semicolon as the "big brother" of the comma. Whereas a comma can stitch together a dependent clause and an independent clause, a semicolon can connect two independent clauses. Semicolons are also used to separate items within a list, when the items themselves have commas in them.
Hope this helped!(7 votes)
what is a difference beetwen colen and semecolen🤔🤨(3 votes)
Hi! The differences between a colon ( : ) and a semicolon ( ; ) are that a colon is used to show time (5:30), a list ( We need: … ), to separate two clauses ( … : … ), or to define something. A semicolon however, does not show time or makes a list, but it does separate two main clauses from each other ( … ; … ). I hope I helped you! ( I asked my mom this too! ) 🙂🙃🙂(3 votes)
Is this okay? I'm not allowed to get a pet; my mom said they smell.(2 votes)- Yep, that's grammatically correct. As long as both clauses are independent and there's a need to connect them, you can connect them with a semicolon.(4 votes)
- I must add, why can’t we just use commas instead of semicolons? Because we could just add the conjunctions before and after. Then we wouldn’t have to use the semicolon, right? 🤔(2 votes)
- Consider the whole "commas, parentheses, dashes, semicolons, colons" thing as a question of strength. Each one of these has a certain amount of power to stop the flow of the language for the sake of clarity. A comma is most useful, but not terribly strong. A colon is awesomely powerful (it might even be able to stop a speeding freight train). Don't use a comma where a colon is needed ("never bring a knife to a gunfight"). Also, don't rely on a colon when all you need is a comma ("don't use a sledge hammer to kill gnats.").(3 votes)
I'm not sure I get it, but maybe I did. Is this sentence correct?
I hate hot sauce on my mac and cheese; I had a red hot tongue the last time I had it.
I don't think this is correct, but I never really understood semicolons. So please tell me if i'm wrong or correct.(3 votes)
If you aren't sure, you could just combine the two sentences: "I hate hot sauce on my mac and cheese, because the last time I had it, I got a red hot tongue."(2 votes)
- A semicolon is just used to link two sentences together, but the sentences can't be by itself?(2 votes)
- No. ONE of the functions of a semicolon is to link two independent clauses together. The semicolon is a powerful punctuation mark, that has other functions as well.(2 votes)
5:30Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians. In this video, I'm gonna tell you about a piece of punctuation
called the semicolon, which basically looks like a comma with a period on top of it. The semicolon has a few uses, but, the basic sort of standard use is to link two closely related ideas, that can stand on their own
as individual sentences. So that might sound a little weird, you think there's two
individual sentences, so they just have a
period in between them, why do they need to be linked? Well, let's look at an example, and I'll show you what I mean. I'm a big fan of roller coasters, but if I weren't I could
say something like, I don't wanna ride the Mega Sky Coaster; I'm afraid of heights, and
that ride sounds terrifying. Now you notice, we have a semicolon here in between these parts,
but let's take a step back, and just put a period here for a second. So now we have, I don't wanna
ride the Mega Sky Coaster. Period. I'm afraid of heights, and
that ride sounds terrifying. Exclamation point. These can work on their
own, as different sentences. But they're so closely tied together. You know, I say I don't want
to ride the Mega Sky Coaster, it's sort of telling us the back story as to why I don't wanna ride it. So we can use a semicolon in this instance to sort of tie the two
sentences together into one. Now we can't go around tying
every sentence to each other, we can't have everything just connected with a whole bunch of semicolons, it works in this case
because these clauses are sharing such similar information. In this sentence, the two clauses that are directly connected
are both independent clauses. This makes sense, because
the semicolons job is to connect things that can stand on their own as sentences, but, a sentence isn't always just an independent clause by itself. One example of this would
be, I wanna get a pet turtle, semicolon, however, I think it
might scare my baby brother. This is an independent
clause, and so is this, but the however in between the two of them can make things a little bit confusing. That's why it's important
to note that you can have a semicolon, followed
by an introductory adverb, or a transitional phrase. It doesn't just have to
be independent clause, semicolon, independent clause, period. You can have other clauses and
phrases and words in there. As long as the things that
you're linking together can stand on their own
as individual sentences. There's another place
we can use semicolons, which is in a complex list. In this case, it's called a super comma, but we're gonna get to
that in another video. So for now, this is
how you use a semicolon to link parts of a sentence. If the words to the left
and the words to the right of the semicolon can stand
as individual sentences with a period in between them, you can put a semicolon there instead. You can learn anything, Paige out.