You can also think of a colon saying, this is what I mean. You can use it to add a list or group of words, offer an explanation, bring attention to something, add a quotation, or join different ideas together. It is not a continuation of a similar or related idea. It looks like two full stops on top of each other. One other point to remember is that you don’t capitalize after a semicolon unless the first word is a proper noun.Īlways consider using a range of sentence structures readers will really appreciate it.

You need to remember that the correct use of commas with coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs still applies.

Mary loves walking in the forest however, Sandra finds it boring. Mary loves walking in the forest moreover, Sam loves it too. Mary loves walking in the forest of course, it’s her favorite weekend activity. Mary loves walking in the forest, but Sandra finds it boring.īut when you use conjunctive adverbs such as however, instead, nevertheless, moreover and of course, you can use a semicolon. Mary loves walking in the forest and Sam loves it too. Mary loves walking in the forest, so it’s her favorite weekend activity. When you do this, you can’t use a semicolon. However, they could be joined with a coordinating conjunction like and, but or so to link sentences. You can see that these three examples could be separate sentences. Mary loves walking in the forest Sandra finds it boring. Mary loves walking in the forest Sam loves it too. Mary loves walking in the forest it’s her favorite weekend activity. Here are the three sentences with common uses of the semicolon. Look at the following examples of three very simple sentences that you can form in different ways. When you use a semicolon, you don’t capitalize the first word for the second clause unless it is a proper noun.Īs with all punctuation, you can use it to create variety by avoiding repetitive forms in your writing. Think of it as a cross between a comma and a full stop. It means that you could also write them as two separate sentences. When you use semicolons to separate two clauses, they must be directly related.

How to use a colon