Learning Punctuation: Colons and Semicolons

Updated: Feb 21

Introduction - Learning English Punctuation

In this article, I want to explain two punctuation marks: the colon and the semicolon.

I'll go on to explain:

the difference between them
when you should (and should not) use them

And I will give you some examples.

Use them in a correct way and you will improve your English writing.

I used a colon in that first sentence.

If you cannot see it, this is what the colon looks like:

Colon ( : )

This is what the semicolon looks like:

Semicolon (😉 …and you notice that it makes a smiling, winking face if you put ; inside ( ) if you type it into your computer.

So here is the semicolon on its own: ;

And again, I used a colon.

By now, you should be understanding the use of the colon, from the examples I have given you.

A rule for using a colon

The rule is that when you want to show that something is following, such as a quotation, an example, or a list, use a colon.

By the way, the plural of colon: colons.

See, I have used a colon again.

An important point to remember is this:

Do not use a colon in a sentence after phrases such as "such as", "including", and "for example".

Phrases like these tell the reader that a list of examples will follow.

So there is no need to introduce them with a colon, which would be redundant/not needed.

A rule for using a semicolon

Never introduce a list using a semicolon (explained below).

Sometimes, a sentence ending in a full stop rather than a colon will introduce a list.

And it might look like this. (I could have used a colon here, instead of the full stop.)

These are the countries that have signed up to the agreement.

Australia

Japan

USA

Great Britain.

More about semicolons

Semicolons replace commas. I explained commas in another article.

A semicolon is used to join two independent clauses.

That means:

two clauses as two separate thoughts could each stand alone as complete sentences.

Example:

This is a blog article; you can read many other articles on punctuation here.

You can see that there are two complete sentences there:

This is a blog article.

and

You can read many other articles on punctuation here.

Conclusion

In this article, I have explained two very common punctuation marks.

And here are two final examples of how to use them.

They are: the colon and semicolon.