There is this thing in English called a semicolon.
It looks like this:
99% of people have no idea how to use a semicolon; most people don’t even know it exists. But once you know about it you start to see it everywhere, and it turns out to be a really useful grammatical device.
Read the snippets below and highlight the semicolons when you find them. What effect do you think they create?
Suddenly, her eyes grew wide, as if with fear; I realized, to my horror, that her face was starting to melt.
My father loved it; it scared the hell out of me.
Most of the house was ruined; what was any good was so blackened by smoke as to be unsalvageable.
Grandpa was off at the Moose Lodge, where he spent the better part of every day; Lori was taking her bath; and Mom was at the table in Grandpa's room working on a crossword puzzle.
One way to think about the semicolon is in terms of pauses.
When you are reading and you hit a comma, you pause briefly, and then you carry on until you hit a full stop. This makes you pause a bit longer, perhaps even take a breath. And then you carry on again.
Why would you want this medium pause? Two possible reasons.
First, you want two statements to be just a little bit closer together because you think they are closely related.
Dad, meanwhile, was saying he was not asking me for the money; he was telling me to give it to him.
Second, to separate items in a list—especially if the items are wordy or have commas inside them.
I liked to play in the graveyard after service; I liked my parents' pre- and post-commentary in the car; I liked being doted on by parishioners; and I loved, absolutely was infatuated with, Myra Narbonne.
Now let’s write some variations on snippets using semicolons.
One reason why you might want to bring two clauses closer together is because they make a good contrast.
My father loved it; it scared the hell out of me.
The semicolon brings these two statements together, as if they are two sides of the same coin.
My mother loved cheese; I hated it.
They wanted to the trip to go on forever; I couldn't wait for it to end.
She thought the movie was the best thing she had seen; I would rather have spent the night in a basket of rats.
Here is another variation on contrasting clauses.
My life was over; my life had just begun.
Again this snippet uses the semicolon to pair two sides of the same coin.
It was dark; it was light.
It was the best of times; it was a living nightmare.
I wanted to laugh; I wanted to cry.
Another way to use a semicolon is to provide an explanation for a statement.
I felt almost as cold in the house; while we had the coal stove, we had no coal.
He complained he was feeling cold; although he had a thick jacket, the rain had soaked through.
We didn't want to cross the desert; while we had supplies, we had no sense of direction.
We were sweltering in the ampitheatre; while it did provide shade, the metal roof radiated an oven-like heat.
This next snippet is another example of using a semicolon to explain a statement.
Notice how the explanation is kept short and punchy.
What the reporter wrote influenced what people thought about and talked about the next day; he knew what was really going on.
What Randy wrote on Facebook got nearly all the Erinsborough parents angry; they thought he was being mean.
Whenever the principal visited the classroom, kids shut up and got straight to work; everyone was terrified of the man.
His sidewalk paintings brought tourists from as far as Kensington and Manly; they were famous for their beauty.
Here is a similar snippet to the last one, except this time the first clause is short and punchy, and the second clause is more expansive.
In Somalia, family is everything; relationships are as essential as water and milk.
Notice how in the first clause Waris Dirie makes a big claim, almost like stating a rule.
In the second clause she expands on the rule, reinforcing it by using a simile: … relationships are as essential as water and milk.
In Australia, everyone learns to swim; public pools are as common as soccer fields.
In this school, effort is everything; hard work is the only road to success.
I can't stand horror movies; terror is one flavour of ice-cream I don't care to buy.
This snippet uses a semicolon to show how a person can have contradictory feelings about an event.
We tripped and fumbled; scared to leave something behind, scared we might be left behind.
Notice how the there are two clauses after the semicolon. What’s that about?
…scared to leave something behind, scared we might be left behind.
The two clauses are equal opposites. As these characters are tripping and stumbling, they are both afraid of losing their belongings, and of being left behind because they are too busy trying to carry their stuff.
We staggered around the field; longing to win, longing to rest.
I painted my room completely black; convinced it was the best thing ever, convinced my parents were going to kill me.
My mother dragged me into the car by my hair; furious that I was arguing with her, even more furious that I was right.
Normally when you write a list, you use commas between each item. Let’s look at an example of using semicolons in a list.
Long enough for my father to move up the academic ranks by taking promotions that took the two of them, and then the four of us, to Madison, Wisconsin; Rockville, Maryland; and, finally, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
One of the most common reasons to use semicolons in a list is because the items have their own commas. In this snippet, each item is a city, and a state:
...Madison, Wisconsin; Rockville, Maryland; and, finally, Paoli, Pennsylvania.
We lived everywhere: Sydney, Australia; Paris, France; Sao Paolo, Brazil.
But it doesn't just have to be a list of places; it can be a list where any item uses commas.
My school bag was full of surprises, like a slimy banana, which I scraped out; a rat skeleton, which I put in Anna's desk; a handful of loose peanut M&Ms, which I ate; and a mummified spider, which I kept.
I spent my birthday money on a whole bunch of junk, including an aquarium tank with a crack down the side; an old Twister set with the spinner missing; a collection of dolls, which all looked slightly creepy and evil; and an ant farm for Tom, who had told me that he wanted one for Christmas.
Let's wrap up by reviewing some of the patterns we've seen in this lesson.
Write a variation using the they felt one way; I felt another way pattern.
My father loved it; it scared the hell out of me.
Write a variation using the effect; explanation pattern.
What the reporter wrote influenced what people thought about and talked about the next day; he knew what was really going on.
Write a variation using the rule; reinforcement pattern.
In Somalia, family is everything; relationships are as essential as water and milk.
Write a variation of this snippet. Figure out the pattern yourself.
I felt almost as cold in the house; while we had the coal stove, we had no coal.
That's the end of this lesson.
Semicolons are a supremely nerdy piece of punctuation but worth getting to know; once you start using them you won't stop. See you next time!
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