4 ms·
Semicolon has two uses in English. First, to separate two related sentences in a way weaker than a period. Second, in place of commas separating items in a li
by dllthomas 10y ago
Semicolon has two uses in English. First, to separate two related sentences in a way weaker than a period. Second, in place of commas separating items in a list where at least one list item contains commas.
- jameshart 10y agoIt's a poor mind that can only conceive of two uses for a punctuation mark. Sure, those are the two conventional uses for semicolons, but it's far from all the ways a semicolon can be used. Try combining it with reported speech; consider deploying it in lists which don't contain commas (like this one); use it to jam together sentence fragments in poetry; use it to notate interruption in a screenplay; use it to make your smileys wink ;)...
- dllthomas 10y agoConventional uses was all I was speaking to. Clarification of that fact omitted for brevity.