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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 7
Lesson 2: Introduction to semicolonsSemicolons and complex lists
We use semicolons to punctuate a complex list, which is when list items contain commas. For example, “I visited Paris, France; Paris, Texas; and Paris, Illinois.” Paige explains.
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I love Wings of Fire, Hinges, and Nimona. Is that a correct use of commas? Or should those commas be semicolons? You decide!
P.S. I really do love those books.(17 votes)
Commas are correct here. Semicolons would be overkill.(16 votes)
If you use a semicolon once, then do you have to use it for the rest of the list even if the rest of the contents of the list don't have commas in them?(9 votes)
Items in lists are usually separated with commas. However, if the list items themselves contain commas, then semicolons can be used as separators to outrank those commas.
But according to your question, if the contents of the list are actually separate things, then it makes sense to use commas. But, if its a complex list, then you don't need commas or colons.(13 votes)
Where is David? I mean, I love Paige, but I miss david!(15 votes)- David Rheinstrom finished making the videos you see here late in 2016. Paige left even earlier, in September of that year. Paige is all grown up now, somewhere in the Bay Area in California. David moved to the East Coast.
Is that what you were asking about?(2 votes)
Semicolons are used for a list(6 votes)
Yes, semicolons are used in complex lists! They can also be used to join independent clauses.(7 votes)
Thanks, Paige great lesson(7 votes)- How to use a semicolon in the complex list I don't know when to use semicolon or colon in the complex list and how to know this is independent clause or not(6 votes)
- You have asked three things. that's OK, we just need to separate them in order to give a clear answer.
1)How to use a semicolon in the complex list?
2) I don't know when to use semicolon or colon in the complex list.
3)How to know this is independent clause or not?
#1 and #2 can be answered if you will listen to the lesson again, setting the speed for half and pausing after each sentence to make sure you have understood what the teacher has said. If you need to, re-set the subtitle language from English to something more comfortable to you.
#3 will be answered for you in the lesson on phrases and clauses, and in the lessons that follow it. The link is below.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/syntax-sentences-and-clauses/phrases-and-clauses/v/phrases-and-clauses-syntax-khan-academy
I wish you the best as you continue to study.(6 votes)
I saw this one in the next Paractice: I asked for a trim and he shaved my whole head!
Why don't we jsut add a comma before the words "and he".(4 votes)
Good question, Jonathan!
Your sentence: "I asked for a trim and he shaved my whole head"
As you see, the word AND acts in place for a comma here, mainly because a comma isn't needed. Although you could put one thee, it wouldn't be necessary.
Hopes this helps! If is doesn't please let me know. :)
#youcanlearnanything(10 votes)
why aren't colons used in complex lists(3 votes)- Start with the lowest level separator, the comma. When you need something stronger, go upward a single level at a time. The first step up from the comma is the semicolon. If you need to go higher, then you ascend to the colon. But complex lists don't need that. Should you NEED to go that high, you might rather rewrite the entire sentence or paragraph.(8 votes)
- Is it necessary that before or after the semicolon there should be an independent clause. In the complex list, you gave the examples but neither before the semicolon nor after it was an independent clause(4 votes)
- No, there doesn’t have to be an independent clause right before or after a semicolon. One of semicolons’ jobs is to separate independent clauses, but another job is to separate items in complex lists. The examples shown use semicolons correctly to do that second job.
Does this help?(5 votes)
Doesn't a semicolon act as the word "And"? For example: ; = and. If so, at video time0:42, it says San Francisco, CA; and Knoxville, TN. Shouldn't it be CA and Knoxville?(5 votes)
Perhaps the semi-colon can be seen to act as the word And in some cases, though this is the first time I've seen that stated. In the case you mention, the semi-colon is used to separate elements of a list of City/State pairs, and the And in this case is showing that Knoxville, TN is the last pair in the list.(2 votes)
0:42Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians. So if you've ever written
a list of items or actions you know that we use commas
to separate the elements of that list. Sometimes, though, our
lists get a bit complicated and we have something
called a complex list. And when that's the
case instead of commas, we use semicolons. Let's look at an example. I've lived in quite a few
places across the country, so if I want to list a
few of them I can say "I've lived in New York, New York; "San Francisco, California; "and Knoxville, Tennessee." The items in this list are New York, New York; San Francisco, California; and Knoxville, Tennessee. You can see that they're
separated with these semicolons. What makes this list complex
is the fact that all of the items in it have commas in them. Cities and states need to
be separated with commas, so if our list had commas
in it as well, that would get kind of confusing. It would end up looking like "New York comma New York comma "San Francisco comma California comma "and Knoxville comma Tennessee." This has a pretty high chance
of being misunderstood. It could look like I'm
saying I lived in New York, a place called New York, San Francisco, just California in general, and Knoxville, Tennessee. That's just a lot of
commas and a lot of chances for misinterpretation. So this is not what we want. Another sort of complex
list is when we have a list inside of another list. This looks something like
"I need to buy a textbook, "a workbook, and a dictionary for Spanish; "a calculator for math;
and a map for geography." Because we have semicolons
here separating elements of the list instead of
commas, we can tell that the textbook, the workbook,
and the dictionary are all for Spanish class. To get the same information
across without using semicolons we'd have to say something
like "I need to buy a textbook "for Spanish comma a
workbook for Spanish comma "a dictionary for Spanish
comma a calculator for math "comma and a map for geography." That sentence is way
longer than it needs to be. We can condense it down to
this much shorter sentence here by using semicolons in the place
of the regular list commas. Because the semicolon is playing
a special role in the case of the complex list,
sometimes it's referred to as a super-comma. It's essentially acting
as a comma, but removing some of the confusion
that might occur if we had so many commas in one sentence. That's semicolons in complex lists. When we have a list
inside of another list, or elements in a list that
already have commas in them, we use semicolons to
separate all the elements to make sure the sentence is extra clear. You can learn anything. Paige out.