|
The semicolon ( ; ) is
an important punctuation mark
in English and has several
uses. One is in connecting
sentences with closely
related
ideas. Another use is in
connecting items in lists
(series).
Use a semicolon
to connect items in lists if the items
in the lists contain commas.
Examples:
She's lived in San Antonio,
Dallas, and
Irving,
Texas; Palms, West Los Angeles, and
Brentwood,
California;
Arch Cape and Portland, Oregon; and
Phoenix, Arizona.
We invited Bob's girlfriend,
Annie; Judy, Ahmed,
and Simón; Simón's cousins, Hugo and Pilar; our
next-door neighbor,Tranh, and her
husband; and
three
or four other people.
For the class you'll need
two
diskettes, either
formatted or
unformatted; paper, both for the
printer and
for your class notes;
and, of course,
the
textbook.
Special Notes:
| 1. |
|
Semicolons are very helpful,
in
sentences
such as the
ones above, in making
the lists
less confusing. Without the
semicolons,
the items in the list would be difficult
to
understand; using commas
alone would not
separate the items clearly:
We invited Bob's girlfriend,
Annie, Judy,
Ahmed,
and Simón,
Simón's cousins, Hugo
and Pilar,
our next-door neighbor,Tranh,
and her
husband,
and
three or
four other
people. (This
sentence is confusing because
the items
in the list are not clearly separated.)
|
| |
|
|
| 2. |
|
Periods
(full stops) cannot be used instead
of semicolons
in sentences like those above. |
|
