Colons and Semicolons

You may know the colon as a rather unpleasant organ, but trust us: the punctuation mark is much more fun. The colon resembles two periods, one above the other. It looks like this: : Colons are used to connect a sentence with information that helps to explain it. Three sentences ago, we used it to connect "trust us" to "the punctuation mark is much more fun."

Often, the newly connected phrase or clause is a list of examples or a quote. "There are four sections to the website: the homepage, the articles, the games and applications, and the About Us section." "John said: 'I want to become a staff member of thewordiswhom.com!'" The colon can also be used to emphasize the information that follows. "I have only one thing to say to you: it's actually whom."

Additionally, colons have uses in analogies: one colon means "is to" or "are to," while two colons mean "as." This website : sublime :: our competitors : abhorrent. My, there are a lot of ways colons can be used!

The semicolon looks similar to a colon. It resembles a period above a comma. It looks like this: ; Semicolons can stand in for conjunctions, including but not limited to: "and," "but," "or," "nor," "for," "so," and "yet." In the sentence "I have a meeting; it's at 3 p.m.," the semicolon likely represents an "and." In the sentence "I want to go to the movies; I haven't done my homework," the semicolon likely represents a "but" or maybe a "yet."

It is certainly tricky to determine whether you should replace a conjunction with a semicolon, and some writers avoid this punctuation mark altogether. However, semicolons have another use, and in this role, they are indispensable. They are used to separate items in a list of phrases that include commas. If you were to say "I've been to Charlotte, North Carolina, Montgomery, Alabama, and Orlando, Florida," this sentence could be a little confusing to readers. Instead, you should write "I've been to Charlotte, North Carolina; Montgomery, Alabama; and Orlando, Florida." This makes things far clearer for readers.

Colons and semicolons can be tricky: they are very ambiguous. If you see one, just think carefully about its possible meaning; you should be able to figure the sentence out.