How to use the SEMI-COLON in English writing

hi i'm rebecca from engvid today you will learn a simple but very important way to improve your English and to take it to a higher level and that is because right now I'm going to unlock the mystery of the semicolon for you so what is the semicolon how do you use it when do you use it I'm gonna explain all of that to you and even if you've never used it by the end of this lesson I'm sure you will start using it okay so let's get started so first of all what is the semi colon a semi colon looks like this okay it consists of a period and a comma and it's a little punctuation mark that makes a big difference in your academic and professional writing all right now if you start using this and let's not say if let's say when you start using the semicolon you will get higher grades in your assignments and tests and exams and essays you will impress your employer's and your boss and your clients because you'll be writing better and most important you will come across as a more educated a more intelligent and a more advanced thinking kind of person which all of these advantages are advantageous I'm sure you want to have so even if you've never used a semicolon before no worries or if you've used it but you weren't sure if you were using it correctly or not I'm going to explain to you exactly when we use it why we use it and how we use it and last I'll explain to you how not to use it all right let's get started so the most important thing about the semicolon is that it links ideas what is the difference between using a period and using a semicolon well a period divides ideas and sentences and a semicolon links or connects the ideas and thoughts and sentences all right that's the most important purpose of the semicolon to show that we have one sentence then we have a second sentence but this second sentence is connected to has some link to the first sentence and we show that by using a semicolon in the middle so let me show you some examples so you understand exactly what I mean okay all right so the first thing the semicolon does is that it shows a connection between two sentences now that's important I said two sentences not two parts of sentences not two dependent clauses no two complete sentences that means both sides before the semicolon and after the semicolon have to be complete sentences by themselves there are a few small changes which I will explain but first of all remember that both sides have to be complete sentences let's look at an example this is without the semicolon first of all it is raining period you should take an umbrella period okay two sentences is it wrong to write like this no it's not wrong but if you want to write a little more powerfully a little more effectively and a little bit more in an advanced way then you could do this you could say it is raining semicolon you should take an umbrella now what was the result of using the semicolon we showed that this second sentence you should take an umbrella the second idea is linked or connected to the first sentence right you should take an umbrella why because it's raining so those ideas are connected they flow from each other and we want to show that there is a connection all right so what did we do instead of the period we put a semicolon second thing that we did the second thing is that the sentence even though it's a complete sentence but when it follows the semicolon here we had a capital letter but when it follows the semicolon we have to make it a small letter unless it's like a name or something like that which normally you would write with a capital letter but otherwise you break it a small letter all right so semicolon and small letter usually let's look at another example I'm feeling unwell semicolon I can't go to the meeting all right again the two ideas are connected right so instead of having two short sentences we want to show the connection by using the semicolon here I didn't use a small letter because I've always write the letter the word I has a capital letter so that's fine let's look at another example the baby is afraid semicolon she doesn't trust strangers so again we want to show a connection between these two ideas or thoughts so we use the semicolon and we used a small letter not a capital letter after the semicolon okay now this is the most important way in which we use the semicolon so if you understand this then you understand you've understood I would say 80% of it or 90% of it okay let's look at a few more situations in which we use the semicolon so this punctuation mark is also used to clarify confusing information in a list what do we mean let's look at this sentence it's a long sentence and right now it does not have any semicolons so let's read it and see what happens the scholarship recipients are Maria Flores from Cancun Mexico John Colt from London England and Jill Dubois from Paris France now it's a little bit confusing right like where's Cancun what's theirs Cancun comma Mexico comma John cold London comma England comma it's very confusing so we want to separate these in some way right so this is what you do it's really easy it's actually fun so let's do it together the scholarship recipients are who are they Maria Flores from Cancun Mexico right that's all we're gonna say about Maria so there we take out the comma and we put it semicolon all right sorry I'll put it I'll write it properly okay now we know that's Maria Flores from Cancun Mexico next we have John Colt from London England right that's one other piece of information we don't keep a comma here we put another semicolon here because then we know John Colt from London England is all one piece of information not to be confused with Maria from Cancun and the last part is NGO Du Bois from Paris France now this list of information becomes much easier to understand okay so that's the second way in which we use the semicolon let's look at a couple of other ways that we also use this important punctuation mark okay now let's look at three more ways in which we use the semicolon alright so we also use it to connect two sentences which are linked by transitional expressions alright or conjunctive adverbs don't worry if you don't know what those are I'll give you some examples words like however nevertheless therefore thus in addition consequently also still so if the second sentence alright starts with one of these or the second thought starts with one of these kind of words then we can use a semicolon before it and a comma after this word let me show you an example don't get worried you'll do it I know you will so let's take this example he wants to study overseas semicolon therefore comma he needs to take the IELTS alright the IELTS is an English proficiency exam so least why did we use a semicolon we could have just used a period yes you know that you know the answer to that we want to show a little more of a connection between these two ideas right between these two sentences that's why we use the semicolon : also because it sounds and looks a little more academic a little more sophisticated right and you want to appear like that so we said he wants to study overseas semicolon there for now remember therefore because it's coming after the semicolon has to be a small letter not a capital letter and then we put a comma and we say whatever else we have to say okay alright so that's another way in which we use the semicolon and it's a very common way of writing in academic circles alright next number for the semicolon adds style it adds variety it adds a little more interest to our writing and a little more depth to our writing so instead of just writing short choppy sentences which sounds a little bit more like how children write by using the semicolon it becomes a little bit more interesting for example she works all day semicolon she takes classes at night here also it's connected it's kind of connect by what she does but it's also connected by the contrast what she does a day in the day what she does at night okay and last of all the semicolon in an indirect way persuades your reader okay that means if you have an opinion you can kind of sneak it in there right by using the semicolon and so it's a bit indirect it's an indirect way to persuade your reader without coming out and saying this is my opinion so let's look at an example of this people are protesting semicolon the government should reconsider its new policy all right so now you see that the writer is coming to a conclusion and trying to lead us to a conclusion to persuade us to convince us to change our mind and so the writer is saying the government should reconsider its new policy and he or she is linking that through the semicolon to the first fact which is that people are protesting so this is again an indirect way to persuade people so we've just looked at five really good reasons why and how we use the semicolon now we're going to look at a few situations in which you do not use the semicolon all right so before we start this last part I just want to say to you that I'm so glad that you're still watching it shows me that you're a really serious student that you really want to improve your English writing and in fact as I said at the beginning the semicolon is the way the only way through punctuation that you can improve your writing and it's just by learning how to use this punctuation mark right in fact on the website of the University of Bristol which is one of the top universities in the UK they actually say about the semicolon that it's a hugely important punctuation mark okay and hugely powerful punctuation mark and that they suggest that you start using it and by using it you'll get higher grades and you'll impress your employers all the things I was telling you earlier so imagine if a university is actually suggesting and recommending that you use the semicolon how important it must in fact be okay so let's continue now and when we don't use the semicolon so we do not use it to connect to incomplete sentences because as I mentioned in the beginning if you're going to use a semicolon both sides have to be complete sentences already so for example in this sentence I like staying a plate comma even though I need to get up early I like staying up late if we stopped it there that could be a full sentence but what about this part even though I need to get up early know even though I need to get up early is not a complete sentence so in this case we just use the comma we do not use the semicolon alright next you cannot use the semicolon between complete sentences that include what are called coordinating conjunctions now many of you who are a little more advanced in English may have learned about these coordinating conjunctions which are sometimes abbreviated as fanboys so for example the words for and nor but or yet so if you see one of these words in your sentence you cannot use the semicolon all right for example let me see what we can do here if we said I like staying up late oh sorry I need to get up early but I like staying up late in that example we could not use the semicolon but if you said I need to get up early semicolon however I like staying up late that we could do because however was one of the words we could use but these which are called fanboys if you see one of these short simple conjunctions then don't use the semicolon last don't use the semicolon if you're introducing a list of something if you're doing that then what you want to use is a colon instead that's a colon right please bring the essentials : your passport comma ticket comma and luggage all right so whenever you're going to start the list then you can put just a colon and last of all don't use the semicolon very often even though I told you that it's very important to use it and it will give you higher grades at the same time it's like a diamond you don't want to see it too much it'll sparkle when we use it a little bit so for example in an essay if it was a five paragraph essay you could maybe use it once in each paragraph but not more than once in each paragraph because then it becomes a bit too heavy and instead of using it for your benefit it's then just drawing away from the effectiveness of your writing okay now one last thing that I want to tell you is a sort of like a little review a quick review of everything we've learned about the semicolon and that's to tell you that if you're unsure at any time whether you can use the semicolon or not try this test look at the sentences and see if you could put a period there if you could use a period between these two sentences then you can use a semicolon but if you cannot use a period like here if you cannot use a period then don't use the semicolon that's a quick way to check whether you're using the semicolon : correctly or not okay this was such an important lesson I can't even tell you I'm so proud of you your writing is gonna be so much more advanced once you start using this and once you become comfortable with it alright so in order to make sure that you know it well please go to our website at wwlp.com there you can do a quiz on this and really consolidate whatever you have learned and also subscribe to my youtube channel to get lots more videos that will help you improve in speaking writing pronunciation and lots of other things okay thanks very very much for watching and all the best with your English bye for now

Channel: Learn English with Rebecca [engVid]

Views: 405,458

Rating: 4.9280076 out of 5

Keywords: semi-colon, semicolon, colon, punctuation, English, grammarly, writing skills, essay, pronunciation, accent, learn English, English class, native speaker, ESL, English grammar, vocabulary, English vocabulary, engVid, phrasal verbs, IELTS, TOEFL

Id: aCJVCT4G_Ic

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019