When to Use Semicolons (;) A semicolon is used to separate two ideas (two independent clauses) that are closely related. They can also be used when listing complex ideas or phrases that use commas within them. Essentially, a semicolon is like a comma with more meaning or a colon with...
When using certain prefixes, you should add hyphens between them and a base word. For instance, some prefixes that follow this rule include: All- Ex- Self- -elect When used to form sentences, these prefixes could look like this: I am the self-appointed president of my house. She wen...
When to use an apostrophe after 's' When to use a semicolon in a list What is the difference between parentheses and brackets in writing? When to use 'of' and 'for' in a sentence When do we not use any punctuation in the However sentences? When to use commas with names When to us...
Ask a question Search AnswersLearn more about this topic: How to Use Apostrophes | Plural & Possessive Forms from Chapter 2 / Lesson 4 161K Understand how to use apostrophes properly whether signifying plural or possessive forms. See example sentences with apostrophe showing plurality or owners...
An apostrophe followed by an “s” is used in English to create possessive nouns. For example, the noun dog becomes dog’s when you refer to something belonging to the dog, such as “the dog’s ball.” With plural nouns ending in “s,” you add the apostrophe after “s” and do ...
To show how to wield this handy punctuation mark, I’ll start by comparing two sentences: one that contains an em-dash (or em-dashes) and one that contains another punctuation mark. I’ll begin with parentheses, then discuss commas, move on to a semicolon, and finally end with a colon...
Liz Bureman has a more-than-healthy interest in proper grammatical structure, accurate spelling, and the underappreciated semicolon. When she's not diagramming sentences and reading blogs about how terribly written the Twilight series is, she edits for the Write Practice, causes trouble in Denver...
Notice that there must be acommaand acoordinating conjunction. That comma isrequiredwhen joining two complete sentences to form a compound sentence andmust come beforethe coordinating conjunction. Leaving out either of those two principal components is such a big deal that there is a specifi...
I have to admit though what actually bothered me upon reading my story again now was that you had changed a colon to a semi-colon in a place where it was incorrect to use a semi-colon (unless there is some obscure grammar rule I'm unaware of...). I could live without exclamation ...
Too Long; Didn't ReadWhen we speak, we make our meaning clear by the expression that we put into our words and sentences. Some sentences we say all in one breath and with not much change in emphasis from one word to the next. We may be pretty sure that such a s...