TECHNICAL ACCURACY
How to use semi-colons
Semi-colons are used to join to co-ordinate clauses into a single sentence. One way to think of the semi-colon is as a bit like the conjunction and that you use to join two simple sentences together to form a compound sentence. (e.g. This is a simple sentence and this is another simple sentence). The semi-colon has a similar function.
This guide is part of the Technical accuracy series:
When to use a semi colon
Use a semi-colon when you want to form a bond between two complete sentences, typically when they are related to or contrasted with one another. For example:
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night; he has very healthy gums.
In this example the relationship between cleaning his teeth and having healthy gums is strengthened by the semi-colon. The fact Johnny always cleans his teeth is clearly connected to his healthy gums.
When not to use a semi-colon
When this is not the case you should use a full-stop. For example:
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night. He has very neat hair.
Here, Johnny’s teeth-cleaning routine does not need to be connected to his neat hair, so a full-stop is used instead of a semi-colon.
The trick is seeing a connection between the statements
The trick with the semi-colon is working out when the statements are connected. Here are some more examples:
The ice cream van drove past my house today; the driver had green hair.
My aunt wears huge glasses; she looks like an owl.
In all of the semi-colon examples in this guide, a full-stop could be used instead of a semi-colon to create two separate sentences, and it would still be grammatically correct. However, the semi-colon suggests a stronger bond between the statements so works best in cases like these. Plus, a correctly used semi-colon will get you more marks for punctuation.
Having said that, read the Important Final Note on this. It’s very important.