Am I using semi-colons correctly?

[g2narat]

I've only recently learned how to use semi-colons and I think I understood how they are meant to be used; I'm not really sure though.

So really the purpose of this post is to thing of random things and write them; and also use the semi-colon properly.

I've always been curious of that little key on my keyboard but never used it, which is quite a shame; so tell me, did I use the semi-colon correctly?

[dorannmwin]

On your first sentence where you used the semi-colon, that wasn't right. That clearly should have been two different sentences. However, with the last sentence that you wrote, the use of the semi-colon was good.

I'll tell you one thing, the semi-colon is the one punctuation mark that I find I rarely use.

[g2narat]

Oh, but I thought that combining two sentences together is actually one of the uses of the semi-colon? I don't use them much either, which is why I got curious about how to use them properly. Thank you very much for your help!  :grin:

[Flopster]

Oh, but I thought that combining two sentences together is actually one of the uses of the semi-colon? I don't use them much either, which is why I got curious about how to use them properly. Thank you very much for your help!  :grin:

It's not always "combining two sentences" - it's combining two 'clauses', like this:

"There was a big dog outside. The cat meowed" - These are two independent clauses. So you can combine them with a semicolon.

"There was a big dog outside: the cat meowed" - You've combined the two sentences and gotten rid of the 'pause' between them (the full stop).

[miguel_jieb]

It's not always "combining two sentences" - it's combining two 'clauses', like this:

"There was a big dog outside. The cat meowed" - These are two independent clauses. So you can combine them with a semicolon.

"There was a big dog outside: the cat meowed" - You've combined the two sentences and gotten rid of the 'pause' between them (the full stop).

Neither do I use it. Since them, I'm uncomfortable in using semicolons.

I just recently noticed that in this thread, "semi-colon" has a hyphen when it should not have any. This is what makes this website great. I'm learning a lot and I still want to learn more.

Going to back to the thread, I'm grateful for your explanation. It's one of the uses based on what I researched. It's a good example.

[takibari]

I rarely use semi-colons as I actually don't know the rules in using it. I, too, thought that one uses it to combine two sentences. Although I've been warned that this thread hasn't been active in a while, I thought of replying still. The explanations provided have been a great help and I thought to acknowledge the posters for it. Thank you very much!