Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016
The semicolon
23 Punctuation
A semicolon is used to mark a break between independent clauses in the same sentence. It links clauses that are closely related.
She has asked them to leave several times; they had a habit of overstaying their welcome.
For the second time, he rescued a drowning child; his bravery is well known.
A semicolon is also used before conjunctive adverbs and transitional phrases that join independent clauses.
They had been walking around the neighborhood for hours, looking for the lost dog; at the same time, they talked to neighbors they had never met before.
The salesman let the man take the car for a drive; soon after, he had the eager buyer signing the purchase papers.
A semicolon is used to join independent clauses connected by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, or yet) when at least one of the clauses contains a comma.
It was time for the football team to take a break, drink some water, and stretch; but there were so many different exercises, and they had such a limited space, that they would need to be on break for too long to really stretch properly.
A semicolon is used to separate a series of elements from the rest of the sentence when at least one of the elements is long and contains commas. These elements can be phrases or clauses.
In his analytical thesis on the Ninth Symphony, the author decided to include information about Beethoven’s father, Johann, who was his first music teacher; Christian Gottlob Neefe, his most important teacher in Bonn; and Giulietta Guicciardi, his fiancee.
A semicolon is placed outside quotations marks.
Sheryl told them, “You might be scared when you watch this movie”; still, I don’t think it’s scary enough to prevent you from watching it.
Semicolons are never used to join dependent to independent clauses.
Exercise 23.4 Add semicolons where needed.
1. The computers at my job have large monitors, loud speakers, CD burners, DVD players, and all sorts of other useful hardware are equipped with the most recent software and have the most sophisticated firewall.
2. Peter was amazed by the talent of the opposing team’s poetry skills at the same time, he knew his team could win the poetry contest.
3. Greg was the first to run out of the burning house however, Elizabeth was the one who made it to a pay phone to call the fire department.
4. Each of us had enough time to get in the hotel’s swimming pool nevertheless, we were all there on business.
5. There are moments when one needs to think about a situation calmly and for a long time likewise, there are moments when one needs to make decisions quickly and instinctively.
6. Gina said, “Let’s work as a group” Peter said, “We should work individually instead” and Andrew said, “Let’s split the team, and while some can work as a group, others can work individually.”
7. Karen has been painting the kitchen for three hours all the while, she has been cooking and playing with the dogs.