If you want to write English more effectively, then you should use the colon and semicolon. They look and sound similar, but they have very different uses. This website explains how to use them both, and how to know which one is suitable for the task in hand.
Simply put, the colon is used to provide a pause before introducing related information, while the semicolon is just a break in a sentence that is stronger than a comma but not as final as a full stop.
A quick guide to using the colon
A colon is made up of two dots, one placed above the other.
One common use of the colon is to introduce a list of items. For example:
To make the perfect jam sandwich you need three things: some bread, butter and strawberry jam.
Three items are listed in the sentence above. The first part of the sentence informs the reader that there will be three things; then the colon tells the reader “here are the three items”.
A colon can also be used to introduce a definition, statement or explanation of something. For example:
I know how I’m going to handle this: I’m going to hide!
Penguin (noun): an aquatic, flightless bird found almost exclusively in the Antarctic.
This site provides a more in-depth explanation of the colon and examples of using a colon.
A quick guide to using the semicolon
A semicolon is made up of a comma with a dot above it.
The most common use of the semicolon is to join together two clauses that could each be separate sentences — creating a longer sentence. For example:
John calls it football; Sam calls it soccer.
This could be written as two sentences without the semicolon; however, the relationship between the two clauses is made more clear through the use of a semicolon. The semicolon is often used to make the reader think about the relationship between the two clauses.
The semicolon is also commonly used to join two clauses, changing the sentence in combination with words like ‘therefore’, ‘however’ or ‘on the other hand’. The examples below illustrate this approach:
however
Sian is Welsh; however, she lives in Canada.
in addition
He likes to play video games; in addition, he likes to read classical literature.
otherwise
You should stop drinking too much alcohol; otherwise, you’re going to get into trouble.
therefore
Hundreds of people came to the party; therefore, it was not possible to say hello to everyone individually.
See using the semicolon for more information. There are also more examples of using the semicolon.
I have just spent a very enjoyable half hour reading and re-reading this wonderful website. I urge all future visitors to click on every link, drink it all in, and enjoy the magic: be spellbound by the lucid explanations; be enthralled by the examples.
When can we have a sequel? I do hope the creators of this site will make us a guide to commas and hyphens. I’m going to stay here until they do.
I found the destinction between the colon and it’s half brother interesting; however, you appear to be much more enraptured by it than I.
Mike, you of course meant “its half brother.” “It’s” is a contraction of “it is.”
tim, you may have used too many quotation marks: only the statement regarding the half brother can be attributed to Mike.
Tim’s grammar is fine.
“can be attributed” or may be attributed? Surely the whole statement can be attributed to Mike, even if incorrectly, but only the pertinent phrase may be attributed to him, I would have thought?
Because you have separated it from “can be attributed”, “Surely” should be followed by a comma.
That seems like an obvious statement, right? The above hypothesis is too simplistic for most middle- to upper-grade doctors of english. However the righteousness of what you are saying can only imply that Mike does infact have the upper hand in this case and I deem him correct in his terminology, as the semicolon’s half brother is his own. This case of ownership makes the scentence gramatically correct, so in fact to say “it’s half brother” is not only correct and lawfull and educative.
Professor, His or Hers do not need an apostrophe to denote possessiveness. They are possessive pronouns. “It” carries the same rule of possessiveness; “It is.” is contracted to “It’s”; It’s mine”! The castle is robust; its doors are impenetrable. You can’t possibly use “it’s”; otherwise it would read: “it is doors are impenetrable”. Sorry about the grammar.
Last sentence should have read “This case of ownership makes the sentence grammatically correct, so in fact to say “it’s half brother” is not only correct, but lawful and educative”.
just so u know its not quotion its question.
Good catch Tim!
Also meaning the half brother belongs to the colon. Therefor it’s refers to belonging to the colon and could be written as the colon’s half brother. Therefor Mike is right, the apostrophe s means the half brother belongs to the colon :D. Possession.
To get back to the colon and semicolon. I much prefer commas!
You also mean ‘…much more enraptured by it than me.’
Gary’s correction is wrong. The ‘than’ is not a preposition, although many people may treat it as such and so ‘me’ may acceptable in such a sentence to all except strict grammarians. However, Mike is not wrong, because The end of his sentence was an abbreviation for ‘… you appear to be much more enraptured by it than I am.’
Mike’s usage will also be ambiguous less often, for the reason the following examples should make clear.
‘Jane visits George more often than I,” means that
Jane visits George more often than I do.
‘Jane visits George more often than me,’ means that Jane visits George more often than she visits me.
Strictly, Gary’s version means ‘… you appear to be much more enraptured by it than than by me,’ which is not what
Mike meant!
So take care to use the correct form when the context could otherwise lead to you being misunderstood!
I love reading; however, I am a farmer.
This might be my favorite comment thread of all time.
Steve – I completely agree. This is the first time in my history, (that goes way back, to the days of the dinosaurs) that the usage of a colon and a semi-colon has been presented in a way that….I finally get it!!!!!
Is this an actual thing to fight about
LOL I don’t think they’re actually fight; more strutting (giggle)
Thanks for this nice and short guide to colons and semicolons. Just how I like it.!
I hadn’t realize how many militant English ‘enthusiasts’ were out there; you guys love putting your fellow researcher in their ‘grammatical’ place.
Tim: No worries brother; your quotations were just fine. To say: ‘It’s is a contraction of it is’ would be unclear; your original post was much more eloquent than my example. *Try single quotations when you aren’t directly quoting someone, it may look nicer; it’s up to you. (Example: I’m sure it was a mistake and that you already know what I’m about to write. For what it’s worth, ‘its’ is possessive; the apostrophe you added made the contraction for ‘it is.’)
Speaking of ‘nicer,’ here’s a thought: Let he/she who has never accidentally used the contraction for ‘it is’ in the place of the possessive ‘its’ cast the first dictionary.
Mike: Disregard ‘half-wits’ and nitpickers.
To chris7ian: Tim (in his 2nd sentence) wasn’t attributing anything to Mike; he was doing exactly what you did to him: nitpicking grammar.
Your claim, however, was completely invalid; you began with ‘may’ implying uncertainty. So, why even post it?
‘Militant’…that’s a good word.
Also, Rob, in the spirit of this discussion, you should know that the usage of “he/she” is outdated. Most people just use ‘they’ and it is grammatically correct.
Check the videos at http://www.m-w.com for more information.
And yes, you will have to change your entire sentence to follow this new convention.
Rob, your so unschooled. You should have used the word ‘realized.’
Oh wait, that’s what you meant; it was an honest mistake?
I guess people posting on message boards don’t obsessively proofread their posts. And there I was patting myself on the back for my completely selfless, benevolent assistance. You guys know I was only trying to be the savior; not at all caught up my own pride.
yes, I meant You’re**
By the way, I DO proofread my posts. Why? If we don’t know whether or not what we posted was what we intended to post, what good is it to anyone? Having said that, one serves only oneself by correcting another if one can see that it was unintentional and/or the point was clearly made, regardless of grammar.
yes, I meant You’re**
By the way, I DO proofread my posts. Why? If we don’t know whether or not what we posted was what we intended to post, what good is it to anyone? Having said that, one serves only oneself by correcting another if one can see that it was unintentional and/or the point was clearly made, regardless of grammar. Rob, your so unschooled. You should have used the word ‘realized.’
Oh wait, that’s what you meant; it was an honest mistake?
I guess people posting on message boards don’t obsessively proofread their posts. And there I was patting myself on the back for my completely selfless, benevolent assistance. You guys know I was only trying to be the savior; not at all caught up my own pride.
That conversation about a conversation hurt my head. 🙁
I think, AS a English leaner we do not come up by writing English effectively because of ignoring the punctuations that may sound like simple but helpful. If you know how to use them you will never run out of your idea during any dissertation as well any kind of of presentation. Trust me if u did the same you will witness the great improvement in your learning.
Bake Kis – Forgive my ignorance….What is an ‘English leaner”?
Well, it’s three years later and you probably haven’t worked it out yet, so I’ll tell ya: an English learner is someone who is learning English. A foreigner like Bake Kis, for example.
What the hell is the world coming to… (Please don’t correct my grammar)
This just cracked me up! Thank you all 😉
In my opinion, the use of grammar is only a means to an end to ensure that we may effectively communicate with one another when the use of body language is not available; beyond this scope, there is no right way to use grammar, as it’s purely subjective.
The reason we have a grammar is so when we communicate with each other, we understand what is being said. If each person had their own interpretation nobody won’t understand nuttin’. So your first and second points are contradictory.
Lol, people are argueing in the grammer of other people.
There is no ‘e’ in the word ‘arguing’.
You all take grammer way too seriously
There is no ‘e’ in the word ‘grammar’. lol
Grammar is full of many fun surprises, and I can be used in our real world. That is why I love grammar and semi colons so much. This was a great article that was published. Good job!!!
An interesting article and debate; however, language and grammar are not static things but in constant flux. Can you really point to place a place in time and say “that is the definitive English language”. If people are consistently using particular words, spellings and grammar “incorrectly “ they eventually become assimilated into the language and it becomes the norm or “correct” version. Lets not get too hung up on it hey..?
*let’s
The most polite internet debate I’ve seen.
To add one argument. I believe the constant flux of language is due to the difficulty in comparing current language with past norms.
Now that access to the internet, and decades of text, is common, we should strive to make language better. If we begin to accept mistakes and innaccuracies they will spread; we will quickly find ourselves asking if the person meant 3, or didn’t realise 3 and E were not the same thing.
“Tim’s grammar is fine.”……I can vouch for this, as I saw her just the other day, sittin’ on the front porch in her favourite rocking chair, waving and smiling at the people passing by. She’s a lovely old lady, and very proud of Tim, you know!
Loving your name P.Dant, how appropriate.
Loving your name Sassy, how appropriate.
I read in one post : “…much more enraptured by it than I.” and suggest that this is grammatically incorrect.
“I” is a personal subject pronoun and requires a complementary verb, so it ought to be “than I am”. In defence of the isolated “I”, some say the “am” is understood to which I say: “not by me”. The correct form/alternative which has become unpopular recently is “than me”.
The fear of “me” is also apparent with the soppy “myself” as in: “you can respond to her or myself.” This avoids the “I’ which is clearly inappropriate but avoids the dreaded “me”.
Comments?
To those of you who know how to build a legitimate website; What are your rates? I also need a logo/watermark designed. Thank you 🙂
Should a semi-colon be used there?
Wait; Will Will Smith smith? Will Smith will smith!
That “that” that that sentence contained contained the letter “a”.
That “that” that that sentence contained contained the letter ‘a’.
we are not talking about will smith. if u want to talk about him, go home and WATCH HIS MOVIES thx bye
Ha: ha; ha, “Ha, ha, ha”: where ‘ha’ is an impersonal verb; used to decribe: pure chaos we create, when trying to make sense of one persons diction; or contradictions. I’m still getting my head around what a colon means; I suggest it take on a more anatomical meaning: an adjective appropriate to my observation of this discussion. What do you think?
Teezy – LOL…Ha, Ha, Ha…. Good post, Great Job!!!
I never learned to read, …Or write.
this is the perfect explanation about colons and semicolons.
I love how 90% of the comments are just people correcting other peoples’ grammar.
Other People’s.
People is already plural.
People’s*
Though I enjoyed the page’s explaination, I enjoyed the remarks even more. The wit of grammar is amazing! At first I was reluctant to teach it as a second language because of the challenges, but it has been not only fun; it has been exciting.
I am currently writing a fiction paper for my creative writing class and this was just wonderful.
what is a semycolon
[quote] ‘ … two clauses is made more clear through the use of a semicolon….’
Or, for grammatical correctness, should that be ‘… made clearer …’ .
For grammatical correctness, “made clearer” is hardly the glaring grammatical error: “two clauses ARE made more clear… “
It is important to look at the whole sentence when determining if the grammar is correct. “This could be written as two sentences without the semicolon; however, the relationship between the two clauses is made more clear through the use of a semicolon.” In the preceding example the subject for ‘is’ is ‘relationship’ so singular ‘is’ is correct. When you quote part of a sentence such as: “… two clauses is made more clear through the use of a semicolon….”, it is easy to imagine that ‘clauses’ is the subject for ‘is’ which would be in conflict and should be changed to plural ‘are’; but you would be incorrect. I can’t wait to hear about all of the mistakes I made in this post(especially all of my “…’is’ is…” scenarios; honestly what was I supposed to do there?) , but I’m just a humble chef that dislikes when others speak from a place of authority and end up spreading false truths.
No, Henry. If thou shalt ever cometh back to view this post, the correct wording for thy statement should have be as follows:
“… two clauses are maked more clearerer…”
(HaHaHa)
And, for all you other pompous English major ‘wannabes’ out there that may feel the need to show off their obnoxious intellect in order to feel superior than others, (like ‘Cupcake’ below) I say this:
“GET A FRICKIN LIFE. I was merely joking; hence the HaHaHa!”
I’m late to the conversations, but I am horrified by the spelling mistakes as well as the grammatical errors. Thoroughly entertained by it all.
A special thanks to P. Dant, Sam and Teezy.
P(e)Dant your name is excruciatingly pertinent. Perfect 🙂
It was a great guide, so thank you.
Grammar nerds make me giddy.
Why is this bible verse written in this way?
Romans 12:12
As regards hope, rejoicing: as regards tribulation, enduring: as regards prayer, persevering:
Is the colons emphasizing or clarifying tribulation to come and therefore rejoice in the tribulation. the use of the colon is a mind twister, can someone speak about this sentence and how the use of the colons highlight what part of the verse the hope or the tribulation because that changes how i see the verse.
Thank you
It is wonderful that this information is available and saddens me that so many of us (including me) need reeducation in simple grammar.
Hi all? I have been sniffing for definition of colon and semicolon: but the comment side has had me more intrigued than I anticipated. English is my second language and I love every bit of these. I am kenyan: I cannot say how profoundly happy to trade with this language.
**profoundly happy I am to trade-sorry
What a bunch of idiots!
And I say that in the nicest way possible!
After stumbling upon this website to help me understand the difference between using a semicolon or colon. The comments arr absolutely hilarious. Why hasn’t anyone put this on twitter or tumblr, this tread is very entertaining!
‘are’. ‘thread’. ‘tumbler’. No, wait…
Quite interesting debate. But I am a millenial where all sorts of grammar and punctuation rules seem obsolete. Where we’re fun of starting with conjunctions and ending with one. But we do understand what each one meant to say. Wherein when grammatically correct people tries to correct us, they would appear more the weird one and frowned upon.
Language is just basically understanding and being understood by the person you’re communicating to regardless of grammar, punctuation, sentence style and many others. I’m not an English speaker, by the way. And I belong to the 90% world population who doesn’t really care about whether they have the correct grammar or punctuation when they speak or write as long as their audience understands them.
Yeah, good luck with that. Think I got the gist.R
i understood everything correctly THANK YOU
Thanks for the great guide to colons and semicolons. The best on the web!
My son has a question in a worksheet asking him to rewrite the sentences using colons. Two of them have a colon present and while it seems one needs a capital letter removed, I cannot see a problem with the other. Please could you give us some advise? Many Thanks,
I can see only one thing: the old school building.
You have only one choice: Leave now while you can. (assuming we’ve just to write ‘leave’ here?)
This argument has literally gone on for 6 years; I don’t know what to think about that.
I happened upon this site by accident; however, I can’t believe how much it improved my mood. Some of the comments in the thread made me actually laugh aloud! Some people had very good, intelligent points or questions; there were also people who were quite the opposite! I was curious about the dates when I noticed the date on the particular comment I was reading. Once I glanced through the thread, the latest comment I saw was August 8, 2018. I was surprised it was that long ago…then I searched for the beginning date. August 29, 2012. Oh my gosh! The entire thing, even the dates, was so freaking entertaining! I hope now that I’ve found it again, people will once more share their opinions!
This Thread Is A Big Brain Moment, I Had A Couple Of Big Brain Moments While Reading This.
I recently went through a colonoscopy. Took me a moment to realise that you were on about something much less exciting