Sunday 12 April 2015

How do you use a semicolon? Do you use it as a list as in... 1. She had; blue eyes, blonde hair, and thick eyebrowsOR2. She had: blue...

In the example you give the third choice is correct. You are listing a series of descriptive words that do not need either a colon nor a semicolon.


Semicolons are used in sentences that essentially have two parts that could each be a sentence on their own. These sentence parts are known as independent clauses. One way of joining independent clauses together in a single sentence is to use a conjunction such as and.


...

In the example you give the third choice is correct. You are listing a series of descriptive words that do not need either a colon nor a semicolon.


Semicolons are used in sentences that essentially have two parts that could each be a sentence on their own. These sentence parts are known as independent clauses. One way of joining independent clauses together in a single sentence is to use a conjunction such as and.



I will go to the park and I will ride my bike. 



You can replace the and (or any of the conjunction FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so) with a semicolon, because both parts of that sentence can be used as complete sentences.



I will go to the park; I will ride my bike.



You may also use a semicolon between two independent clauses when the second part is introduced by words such as however, therefore, and for example. 


Semicolons can be used in a list when the parts of the list contain items that are separated by commas. 



The tour will take us to Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Vienna, Austria; and London, England.


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