The primary purpose of the semicolon is to signal a stronger pause than the comma but not the full stop of a period. It is used to join independent clauses and to separate items in a series when the items of that series are separated by commas. Thus, the semicolon also supports and reinforces the grammatical structure of compound sentences.

Accordingly, there are three main uses of the semicolon. Click on one of the three uses to see a description of that use and some examples to illustrate it.

1. To separate independent clauses in a compound sentence
2. With a conjunctive adverb
3. To separate items in a series when the items in the series are separated by commas

	[ HOWL ]	[ Table of Contents ]	[ HWC Home ]	[ Hours ]	[ Hotlinks ]
William Rainey Harper College, 1200 West Algonquin Rd., Palatine, IL, USA, 60067-7398

Copyright © William Rainey Harper College, 1996
Last Revised: 27 September 1996