Premise

If you are wondering how in the world is the right way to use a semicolon, you’re not alone. Most people don’t know the proper usage, let alone why to use one. And all of this, of course, raises the question: who cares, and why bother?

There are actually some very tangible impacts that proper semicolon usage can have on your writing and communication—whether in your personal life via a text message consoling a friend over the loss of a loved one, or at work in writing a policy proposal to your boss.

But first, let’s identify a few key rules you need to know when using semicolons. If you can follow these, then you have taken the first step towards becoming a semicolon expert:

1. Semicolons connect two complete sentences. I.e. typically, you cannot connect two incomplete sentences via a semicolon.
   • Correct: “I like cookies; I like milk.”
   • Incorrect: “I like cookies; and I like milk.”
     • Again, to test if these examples would work, just replace the semicolon with periods. If the sentences are grammatically correct and clear, then you’re okay!
     • Correct: “I like cookies. I like milk.”
     • Incorrect: “I like cookies. And I like milk.”
2. Semicolons are used to illustrate a connection or highlight a point of commentary between two otherwise less connected thoughts. We’ll see exactly how to do this in the following examples!

Examples

These rules above obviously simplify a much more complicated subject, so let’s take a look at some examples to help demonstrate why you would want to connect two complete sentences via a semicolon.

• Semicolons connect two complete sentences. I.e. you cannot connect two incomplete sentences via a semicolon.
  • Correct: “I love mashed potatoes; my mom always made the best.”
  • Incorrect: “I love mashed potatoes; which mom always made the best.”
    • Just replace these two examples with periods, and you can see why the first works and the second doesn’t
  • Correct: “I love mashed potatoes. My mom always made the best.”
  • Incorrect: “I love mashed potatoes. Which mom always made the best.”
    • In the wrong example, “I love mashed potatoes,” is a complete sentence, but “Which mom always made the best,” is not.
• Semicolons are used to illustrate a connection or highlight a point of commentary between two otherwise less connected thoughts.
  • E.g. “I love mashed potatoes; my mom always made the best.”
    • Effect: a semicolon vs. a period here shows a more direct connection and or elaboration between the two ideas. This also depends upon the context of the rest of the text. For example, if the tone of the example above is already surrounded by melancholy, then adding the semicolon may tie into that effect by drawing a more direct connection between the ideas of “love” and the fact that it seems implied that mom “made the best,” mashed potatoes. Maybe she died? Or their relationship has deteriorated. Whatever the case, connecting that these two points are closer together can help to highlight that sort of thematic commentary.
  • E.g. “He was our youngest president; he was our best president.”
    • Effect: in this case, there could be an added note of drama here as opposed to just stating more formally something like, “He was our youngest and best president.” Restating the “he” almost works as a purposefully repetitive effect, i.e. “He was not only this; he was also that.” The distinction can be subtle, but powerful!

Alternative Usage

Like most other forms of punctuation, there are actually other ways to use semicolons (which of course can cause some confusion). Again, the primary way you see them used are via the previous examples. However, there are (as with most forms of punctuation) of course, some extenuating circumstances, like when you have complex lists with main categories and subcategories. For example:

“I visited several major U.S. cities last year: Los Angeles, California; Boston, Massachusetts; New York, New York; and Seattle, Washington.”

Obviously, if you know these cities are all in these states, then who cares whether you use commas or semicolons. But what if you don’t? Some cities have the same name that are the same as states (E.g. New York, New York) and vice versa. And even visually, the example above just looks more clearly organized for our readers’ eyes.

Further Considerations

• It’s probably best not to “over-use” semicolons. Much like with other forms of qualifying punctuation (e.g. em dashes, exclamation point, etc.), these can elicit a great effect, but the more you use them, the less impact they have. “I like cookies! Oreos are great too! I even like onions!” Using a single, targeted exclamation point can highlight the impact of an idea, but too many can risk sounding cliche, immature, or like sketchy marketing.
• Note other examples. The best way to learn when to use semicolons is to note the effect when you see them out in the real world. Think about the impact that you perceive when you see someone use a semicolon to link certain ideas in different situations, whether those are via marketing, texting conversations, or professional correspondences. Does it add seriousness to the tone? Emphasize a contradiction? Make you consider a further point of commentary?