When to Use a Semicolon

Best known for its utility in making winky faces, the semicolon can also be a useful grammatical tool. Semi-colons provide medium separation between ideas and can help vary your sentence structure or call attention to how closely two sentences are linked.

We know what you're thinking: "They sound pretty useless… except when I'm trying to send a flirty text." Trust us on this one. The semicolon can help you out in areas other than your love life.

Semicolons have three main uses:

(1) Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses that are closely related.

The important part is that both sides of the semicolon should be able to stand alone as complete sentences.


I love Jane and Andre as a couple; I'm so glad they're back together.


(2) Unleash the mighty semicolon when using a conjunctive adverb to join two main clauses.

Words such as however, therefore, and indeed are great transitional words, but if you use them without the semicolon, you'll end up with a run-on sentence.


The president of the bank was very cordial; however, he wouldn't hand over all of the money when I asked for it.


(3) Use a pack of semicolons to make a bunch of competing commas more manageable and easy to understand.


Adele had to reschedule concerts in Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Little Rock, Arkansas due to Laryngitis.


Examples