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I can use my colon, my quotation mark, my apostrophe, my comma, my period and have even on occasion even used my forward slash.
My inequality signs get tons of use here in the CR and I have been known to ask a question or two using up to three question marks in succession.
Brackets and braces both have their places for me as does my backslash and I’m fairly certain I’ve use my pipe key once or twice.
But I’ve never knowingly used my semicolon. I don’t know how. Is it a period? A comma? A colon? Some weird amalgamation of the three? Could I, would I on a train?
I’m closing in on the halfway point of the years of man and I thought it might be time to finally learn the secret that is…
the semicolon.
Anyone can use a semi-colon; it is quite commonly used.
The semi-colon is like a heavy comma. You don’t use it as parenthesis like a comma, but it breaks a sentence in two when both parts are separate but still one sentence; when they could have been complete sentences but happen to be a single statement.
When you have a list which includes commas at certain items in the list, you’ll use a semi-colon to delimit the list. This is how dictionaries use it. In general though, if you find yourself using it too much you are probably misusing it.
I must ask, when and how do you use a pipe, other than in logic?
I’m closing in on the halfway point of the years of man and I thought it might be time to finally learn the secret; the semicolon that is…
FTFY.
To learn the semi-colon. Is that the secret?
FTFBOY
Huh???
from Purdue U.
Use a semicolon when you link two independent clauses with no connecting words. For example:
I am going home; I intend to stay there.
It rained heavily during the afternoon; we managed to have our picnic anyway.
They couldn’t make it to the summit and back before dark; they decided to camp for the night.
Derech Hamelech: Thank you for starting such a wonderful thread; it is good to see people taking grammar seriously. 🙂
An independent clause is a statement that could have been its own sentence. Funnybone is saying that you use it instead of a period when the two parts of the sentence are complete statements which you decided to make into one sentence.
A long, run-on sentence should have commas in the right places to show phrasing. However, when you will need sub-commas, as in a parenthetical statement or explanation, within and in between more important commas, you might want to use the semi-colon. Otherwise, it may confuse the reader, who will have to decipher which commas are serving what purpose.
So, it is less than a period and more than a comma; it can replace a comma and resemble a period.
When you are listing Rabbonim in a picture, you’ll say: R’ Asher, Rav of Khal Bnei Zelda; R’ Berel; Mashgiash of Yeshivas Ahavas Mussar. If you’d use commas throughout, you would think that R’ Berel is the Mashgiach of Ahavas Mussar. I know. I could have used the pipe. ;|
What a wonderful discussion. I guess I should come here more often.
That’s a matter of style. It could have been written the way you wrote it, but the author decided to sound curt and decisive. It makes you feel like part of the decision.
If you write a lot, I’m sure the momment will come when you want it to be said just that way, for whatever reason.
What’s a pipe key?
When I was in school, we were taught to use a semicolon before the words however, therefore, although (don’t know what kind of word they are) when used in the middle of a sentence, and then they are followed by a comma. There are other words of this type but my brain cannot recall what they are.
Examples
I went to the store; however, it was already closed and I could not buy the bread.
The store was already closed; therefore, no one could buy any bread.
The store was already closed; although, the sign said it was supposed to be open.
I have found in my line of work that a lot of people are trying to shorten things up everywhere (like text language as an example) so I see a lot more use of just a comma before these terms and nothing after. That is not classic grammar.
By the way, there are cases where a word such as however is not with a semicolon in the middle of a sentence because it is not an independent clause before or after.
Yekke, | is a pipe key, the key after { and }. It is usually Shift+.
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