I was taught it in school, have looked it up on Wikipedia, seen infographics, YouTube videos, etc., and yet I still do not know when to use those things. At this point I just refuse to purely out of fear.
You can use a semicolon wherever you’d logically break in a sentence, without pausing overtly, but intend to follow the thought; semi-colons slip naturally into your thought process when you practice it by speaking.
You generally use them at the end of a line but it is more accurate to say you use them at the end of a statement but we usually put each statement on a single line so it is easy to make that mistake example:
Tap for spoiler
<?php$x = 5; // Semicolon ends the statement$y = 10; // Another statement ends hereif ($x < $y) { // No semicolon needed hereecho"x is less than y"; // Semicolon ends this statement
}
$x = $x + $y; // Statement ends hereecho$x; // Outputs 15?>
While that may be true, you also put them in places that should have a comma, but you want more pause; this is why boiling it down to a single aphorism is difficult.
For example, I’ve read most of the comments in this thread, as well as the Oatmeal info-comic that someone linked, and I still don’t know with certainty the semicolon I used above is grammatically appropriate.
I have one easy rule, and two examples. Use them when using a comma would be confusing.
Examples: often in lists, where each item might contain a comma and so trying to separate list items with commas would just be confusing; and more broadly anywhere where you have a sentance containing clauses and need a different separator.
I just used the first example above: to separate the two list items, and the other one I’m using here, where I’m already using commas; using a semicolon allows braking this up without starting a new sentance.
That second example was somewhat contrived, but does the job; it could have been two sentences.
Actually, there’s another place I use them, but it’s not a “rule” and if more style: I use them selectively in place of periods to prevent a series of short, choppy sentences.
I was taught it in school, have looked it up on Wikipedia, seen infographics, YouTube videos, etc., and yet I still do not know when to use those things. At this point I just refuse to purely out of fear.
You can use a semicolon wherever you’d logically break in a sentence, without pausing overtly, but intend to follow the thought; semi-colons slip naturally into your thought process when you practice it by speaking.
You generally use them at the end of a line but it is more accurate to say you use them at the end of a statement but we usually put each statement on a single line so it is easy to make that mistake example:
Tap for spoiler
<?php $x = 5; // Semicolon ends the statement $y = 10; // Another statement ends here if ($x < $y) { // No semicolon needed here echo "x is less than y"; // Semicolon ends this statement } $x = $x + $y; // Statement ends here echo $x; // Outputs 15 ?>Is this programmer trolling? 🤣🤣🤣
Wikipedia has some examples; they are always super helpful in cases like this.
I’ve always done this one:
Between closely related [independent clauses].
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_clause “Independent clause”) not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction, when the two clauses are balanced, opposed or contradictory:[23].
Basically you use them at points where you’d usually put a period, but you don’t want to add as much of a pause.
ETA:
For example
could also be written as
but it wouldn’t sound as nice.
While that may be true, you also put them in places that should have a comma, but you want more pause; this is why boiling it down to a single aphorism is difficult.
For example, I’ve read most of the comments in this thread, as well as the Oatmeal info-comic that someone linked, and I still don’t know with certainty the semicolon I used above is grammatically appropriate.
You would use a semi-colon in places where a comma and a colon would be equally suitable, pretty much.
Where a period or a comma followed by “And” would go. Semicolon is a full break, distinctly more than a comma
I have one easy rule, and two examples. Use them when using a comma would be confusing.
Examples: often in lists, where each item might contain a comma and so trying to separate list items with commas would just be confusing; and more broadly anywhere where you have a sentance containing clauses and need a different separator.
I just used the first example above: to separate the two list items, and the other one I’m using here, where I’m already using commas; using a semicolon allows braking this up without starting a new sentance.
That second example was somewhat contrived, but does the job; it could have been two sentences.
Actually, there’s another place I use them, but it’s not a “rule” and if more style: I use them selectively in place of periods to prevent a series of short, choppy sentences.
Same. I was taught in school but never learned how to use them until I read this (The Oatmeal).
I use them after worrying about being pretentious, but then (sometimes) deciding “fuck it. It’s right.” and then doing it anyway.
The rules are all made up; punctuation can be used wherever you like.
I call this; the ee cummings