Commas Colons and Semicolons

One space.

There is a general American practice that if a dependent clause (incomplete sentence) follows the colon, the writer should insert one space; and if an independent clause (complete sentence) follows the colon, the writer should use two spaces. However, this is practice is generally seen as antiquated and is discouraged in professional-style manuscripts. One space is sufficient.

A semicolon is used:

a) When two complete sentences are too closely connected to be separated by a full stop but do not make sense if they are put in one sentence. E.g: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."

b) When a list is compiled and the items are several words long. (When the items in the list are only one word long each, commas are used instead). E.g: (instead of bread, butter, eggs, milk.) White French baguette; soft whipped butter; organic English eggs; one pint of semi- skimmed milk.

Hope that helps :) x

Different answer: A semicolon is more important than a comma and less important than a period. You should always defer to periods and commas if possible.

There is no reason not to use commas in the example above using multi-words such as soft whipped butter. Commas will do fine. They separate the sections of the sentence.

If you use other punctuation in the sentence then semicolons can divide up those sections. That would probably be the most common usage. Such as: The recipe uses soft whipped butter, salt, and green tapioca in the first addition; apples, oranges, and purple honeydew in the second addition; and Limburger cheese, tomatoes, and fuzzy peaches in the last addition.

My old Macmillan Handbook of English has three uses for a semicolon:

1. A semicolon is used between the co-ordinate clauses of a compound sentence when they are not joined by one of the co-ordinating conjunctions.

2. A semicolon is used between the co-ordinate clauses of a compound sentence with one of the following conjunctive adverbs: therefore, however, hence, accordingly, furthermore, nevertheless, and consequently.

3. A semicolon is used between the clauses of a compound sentence joined by a co-ordinating conjunction when the clauses are long and when they contain other punctuation, or when a more distinct pause than the comma would give is desirable.

Chief co-ordinating conjuctions are: and, for, but, or, nor, yet.

If they are part of the title, they will go within the quotation marks.

British style places commas and periods that are not part of the quoted material outside of the quotation marks. Also, in technical applications or when discussing coding, punctuation that is not part of a text string should be placed outside of the quotes. Placing commas and periods inside the quotes implies that they are part of the string to be displayed.

Oh yes, it is quite normal to separate the clauses of a sentence with commas.

No. Or, more accurately, you should in some sentences, and in others you should not.

it is usually a signal that he about to have the ball snapped to him.

if you watch the nfl and see sometimes when they do that but nothing happens they'll repeat it more exaggeratedly, depicting that someone didn't notice that and they should've.

Edit by smorin1487: if a quarterback is in shotgun formation, normally the Center is looking between his legs to get a perfect idea of where to hike the ball. The QB must life his leg to indicate that a player is allowed to go in motion... in this case the Center will be allowed to lift his head up to look at the defense, and then he can hike the ball.

When you feel like it

Yes, a comma is usually required before the phrase "formerly known as" to separate it from the rest of the sentence. This helps to clarify the transition from the previous name to the new one.

It is a clear, sunny day. Though often the comma is omitted with modern punctuation trends.

Starting from the right, you place a comma after every 3 digits. Thus, it would read 127,992.

Unfortunately is often used to join independent clauses and should therefore be preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma. For example, "I was so excited about going to the concert; unfortunately, I got a painful sinus infection and was not able to go."

The choice between a comma and a semicolon after the word "include" depends on the structure of the sentence. Typically, a comma is used when "include" is followed by a list of items, as in "The fruits include apples, oranges, and bananas." A semicolon is generally not appropriate in this context unless you are separating complex items in the list that contain commas themselves.

No. Furthermore, there is no word or phrase in English that requires a comma. Commas are a feature of sentence structure.

A compound sentences is two different sentence put together. This is also known as joined sentence.

It is possible that chlorine could cause issues with your contacts after being in the shower. Unless they are causing an irritation, there is no need to throw them out.

Yes, in date formats with the month and year (e.g., December 2021), a comma is typically used between the month and the year.

yes

Yes, especially if they are similar in construction or related. The semicolon is the proper way to join them.

To find the distance between the points ((-3, 1)) and ((-1, 5)), we can use the distance formula:

[ d = \sqrt{(x_2 - x_1)^2 + (y_2 - y_1)^2} ]

Substituting the coordinates, we get:

[ d = \sqrt{((-1) - (-3))^2 + (5 - 1)^2} = \sqrt{(2)^2 + (4)^2} = \sqrt{4 + 16} = \sqrt{20} = 2\sqrt{5} ]

Thus, the distance is (2\sqrt{5}).