What is a semi-colon?

Answer 1

A semi-colon (;) is used for more than one purpose. Here are some of the things it can be used for:

1. It joins together two separate clauses. EXAMPLE: Mary found an old box in the attic yesterday; it may have belonged to her Father.

2. It can separate a list that contains commas. EXAMPLE: On our holiday we visited the following places: Queensland, Australia; New York, America; Athens, Italy; and London, England.

3.It also seperates two independent clauses. EXAMPLE: I ate some chocolate, a banana, a bag of crisps, and some grapes; still, my favourite thing I ate had to be the chocolate cake.

Answer 2

;

The above punctuation mark is a semicolon.

There are three uses for the semicolon:

1. To join two independent clauses (complete sentences) that are closely related, showing that the two clauses are similar or are close in idea. It also shows a kind of cause and effect relationship between the two clauses.
2. To join two independent clauses when the second clause begins with a conjunctive adverb or a transitional phrase (therefore, however, as a result, in fact, etc.)
3. To separate items in a series when one or more of the items contain a comma.

The semicolon serves the same purpose as a coordinate conjunction. However, the semicolon is used sparingly whereas the coordinate conjunction may be used often.

Example:

I love dogs; they are so cute.

rather than writing-

"The police officer pulled up to the house that had just made a call to the police department. But the front door was locked and he was forced to kick it open."

You could write this-

"The police officer pulled up to the house that had just made a call to the police department; but the front door was locked and he was forced to kick it open."
A semicolon is a symbol that looks like this:

;

Answer 3

A semicolon is a punctuation mark used to separate two independent but related clauses in a sentence. It can also be used to separate items in a list when the items themselves contain commas.