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When to
use a colon and when to use a semi colon
The colon
A colon consists of two dots, one above the other:
:
The colon is often used to introduce a list of
items. For example:
The animal enclosure contains four interesting
species: crocodiles, gorillas, tigers, and lions.
This sentence contains a list of four animals.
The first part of the sentence tells you that there
will be four animals; then the colon tells you "here
are the four animals".
You can also use a colon to introduce an explanation
or a definition of something. For instance:
I'll give you the definition of boredom: watching
soap operas on a Friday evening!
"Giraffe: a large fleet African ruminant mammal."
The semi-colon
A semi-colon consists of a comma with a dot above
it:
;
The semi-colon is often used to join together two
independent clauses -- in other words, it joins two
clauses that could be sentences. For example:
Andy has white hair; Jessica has pink hair.
These two clauses could be separate sentences:
"Andy has white hair. Jessica has pink hair."
However, when we use a semi-colon, we are usually
suggesting that there is a relationship between the
sentences, but we are not making that relationship
clear. Usually, you can tell from the context what
the relationship is.
In the example above, the relationship is probably
one of contrast; we could also use "but"
to make this clear: "Andy has white hair but Mary
has pink hair." When we use a semi-colon, it
is often because we want to make the reader think
about the relationship for herself. This is useful
in many situations, such as when writing cautiously,
ironically, or humorously.
One more very common use of the semi-colon is to
join two clauses using a transition such as however,
therefore, on the other hand, etc. Here are some examples:
She drives a red car all week; in addition,
she drives a lorry at the weekends.
Muriel is a size 12; however, she wears size
14 jeans.
You should always eat healthily; otherwise, you might
get ill.
Andrew does not eat red meat; therefore, it is
necessary to serve him only white meat and vegetables.
