The Mystery of the Semicolon Finally Revealed!

We’re going to have a hard time living up to that title. In all honesty, semicolons aren’t very mysterious. They’re just what you get when you balance a full stop on top of a comma.

Despite this, the semicolon does seem to confuse many people, making it one of the most frequently misused punctuation points around.

But there’s no reason to fear the mysterious semicolon; after you’ve read our quick guide to this simple punctuation mark, you’ll be using them like a pro!

What is a Semicolon?

As hinted at above, semicolons combine the qualities of a comma and a full stop. This is reflected in the two main uses of the semicolon:

1. To connect two related but distinct sentences
2. To separate items in a list

In each case, the semicolon can be used in place of another punctuation mark to create more distinction between thoughts than a comma provides, but with more fluidity than if a full stop was used. Let’s see how this works in practice.

Connecting Two Independent Clauses

An independent clause is something which could be used as a sentence by itself. When written as separate sentences, each independent clause ends in a full stop:

I am King of the Otters. In fact, all semi-aquatic mammals obey my commands.

However, if we want to emphasise a connection between two independent clauses, we can place a semicolon between them:

I am King of the Otters; in fact, all semi-aquatic mammals obey my commands.

The use of a semicolon here implies that my ability to command aquatic rodents stems from my status as King of the Otters, rather than simply being a coincidence.

It’s worth remembering that semicolons aren’t typically used with conjunctions like ‘and’ or ‘but’, so the following would be incorrect:

I am King of the Otters; and all semi-aquatic mammals obey my commands.

One exception is conjunctions like ‘however’, which you can use at the beginning of an independent clause:

I am not King of the Otters; however, I can command most other types of semi-aquatic mammal.

It’s also possible to use a semicolon before a conjunction if one of the independent clauses being joined contains a comma.

Separating Items in a List

A comma is usually enough to separate items in a list, but occasionally you’ll need a semicolon instead. Specifically, we use semicolons when the items being listed already include commas.

For instance, when naming a city, it’s common to note the country afterwards (e.g. Melbourne, Australia). If we were to list several cities like this, however, it would look confusing:

I’ve been to four capital cities: London, England, Paris, France, Tokyo, Japan, and Sydney, Australia.

By using a semicolon to separate the items in this list, we can make it much clearer:

I’ve been to four capital cities: London, England; Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; and Sydney, Australia.

Now we can see where each item in the list begins and ends.