From the course: Writing with Proper Punctuation
Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.
How to use semicolons to join main clauses
From the course: Writing with Proper Punctuation
How to use semicolons to join main clauses
- When you have two related sentences you can use a semi-colon to join them into one sentence. Let's say your first sentence says, we need to go to the store tomorrow. And your second sentence says, we're almost out of milk. Because those sentences are so closely related, you can join them with a semi-colon like this. We need to go to the store tomorrow; we're almost out of milk. But you should only use a semi-colon when the meanings go together like that. If your sentences have nothing to do with each other, then you shouldn't use a semi-colon. For example, this would be a bad use of a semi-colon. We need to go to the store tomorrow; fall and autumn are different names for the same season. Since those two ideas are completely unrelated, you shouldn't join them with a semi-colon. You can also join related sentences in other ways using a coordinating conjunction, and a comma, or a word like because, but the semi-colon is a…
Download courses and learn on the go
Watch courses on your mobile device without an internet connection. Download courses using your iOS or Android LinkedIn Learning app.