Rules for the use of the POINT AND COMMA

The punctuation marks They are fundamental in writing, their use determines the way in which we organize, rank and relate ideas. In the same way, these serve to give rhythm to poetic and narrative writing. In each particular case, each punctuation mark obeys specific rules that will guide us to know how and when to use them. In this lesson from a teacher we will discover you the rules of the use of the semicolon.

Index

1. How do you use the semicolon? Examples
2. Enumeration
3. Sentence separation
4. Before conjunctions

To begin we must understand what the semicolon (;) is. According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, this punctuation mark is, so to speak, a midpoint between the period and the comma. It has a pause a little longer than that of a comma and a pause a little less than that of a period, but this does not imply that its work is put into practice only when, for example, we read aloud.

The semicolon also has a grammatical meaning

1. For enumeration
2. To separate sentences
3. To precede an adversative conjunction

Like the point o comma, this sign is written attached to the word that precedes it and separated from the next word. This word that comes after the semicolon is not capitalized, it uses lowercase in the same way as when using a comma. Let's see an example:

Juan is hungry; however, he does not want to cook.

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We start with the first of the rules for the use of the semicolon: it is used to enumerate. Although the comma is often used to separate the elements that we list in a sentence, the semicolon allows us to list complex elements that include commas. What does this mean? That what we are going to list is not a mere noun. Let's look at a specific case:

On my cousin's farm there are various animals such as black and white cows that give milk; chickens, small and yellow; dogs, big and rabid; birds, of different colors and sizes.

As you can see, this type of enumeration allows that when mentioning one of the elements we accompany them with certain attributes. In this case, the semicolon would separate both the element and the attributes or the description that we are giving it. Let's take a look at one more example before moving on to the next case:

My wife invited different participants from the film to our party: the cameraman, David; the art director, Lina; the sound engineer, Camilo; and the set designer, Laura.

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Another of the main functions of this punctuation sign Its the intertwine sentences that have a semantic relationship. In other words, it allows us to join independent sentences at the grammatical level (each one works alone with its subject and predicate), but that their meaning is linked. Let's zoom in on an example to notice the use of this rule:

When I was a child I liked to paint, when I was young to play the guitar; some time later I dedicated myself to writing and discovered my love for the arts.

So to speak, this rule allows us to replace the followed period that could divide the two sentences. This is not a strict rule, the author may decide at their convenience whether to use a semicolon or a period followed.

To conclude this lesson from a Professor on the rules of the use of the semicolon we will see the last of them. This rule is, perhaps, the least subjective of all and is always put into practice in this case. Thus, it tells us that we should use the semicolon when we make use of aadversative connector, but what are adversative connectors?

Well, these are words or groups of words that allow us to logically weave our writing. In the case of adversaries indicate disagreement between two ideas, that is, between two statements or sentences. In the case of the semicolon, it should be put before the connectors such as "however", "however", "instead", etc. Let's see a couple of examples in this regard:

• At the concert there was a lot of noise; however, we were able to speak into each other's ear.
• Luisa wants to go to the beach; on the contrary, David wants to go to the movies.
• The rice is finished; however, there is some pasta left for dinner.

In the case of the "but", which is also an adversative connector, a comma is usually prepended and not a semicolon: there was salt, but Pablo spent it.

In conclusion, the semicolon is a punctuation mark that helps us to perform complex enumerations, replace the period followed in sentences that are related in their central idea and put it before against adversative type connectors.

If you want to read more articles similar to Rules for the use of semicolons, we recommend that you enter our category of Orthography.

• ROYAL SPANISH ACADEMY: Dictionary of the Spanish language, 23rd ed.
• University of Cordoba. (2009). Punctuation marks user manual.
• UNAM. (s.f.). Language grammar.