Since this is about punctuation, what’s with the double dashes? Trailing off is usually written with an ellipsis, though an em dash can be used, since this is more of a break in speech. And yes, double dashes are sometimes used as a substitute on a keyboard or with a typeface that doesn’t have an em dash.
But this is hand-lettered text— just draw the em dash!
Most of the time I see em dashes and en dashes though should just be commas anyway.
I was taught it in school, have looked it up on Wikipedia, seen infographics, YouTube videos, etc., and yet I still do not know when to use those things. At this point I just refuse to purely out of fear.
You generally use them at the end of a line but it is more accurate to say you use them at the end of a statement but we usually put each statement on a single line so it is easy to make that mistake example:
Tap for spoiler
<?php $x = 5; // Semicolon ends the statement $y = 10; // Another statement ends here if ($x < $y) { // No semicolon needed here echo "x is less than y"; // Semicolon ends this statement } $x = $x + $y; // Statement ends here echo $x; // Outputs 15 ?>
Is this programmer trolling? 🤣🤣🤣
Wikipedia has some examples; they are always super helpful in cases like this.
I’ve always done this one:
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Between closely related [independent clauses].
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(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_clause “Independent clause”) not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction, when the two clauses are balanced, opposed or contradictory:[23].
- My wife said she would like tea; coffee would have been my choice.
- I went to the basketball court; it was closed for cleaning.
- I told Kate she’s running for the hills; she knew I was joking.
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I use them after worrying about being pretentious, but then (sometimes) deciding “fuck it. It’s right.” and then doing it anyway.
You can use a semicolon wherever you’d logically break in a sentence, without pausing overtly, but intend to follow the thought; semi-colons slip naturally into your thought process when you practice it by speaking.
I have one easy rule, and two examples. Use them when using a comma would be confusing.
Examples: often in lists, where each item might contain a comma and so trying to separate list items with commas would just be confusing; and more broadly anywhere where you have a sentance containing clauses and need a different separator.
I just used the first example above: to separate the two list items, and the other one I’m using here, where I’m already using commas; using a semicolon allows braking this up without starting a new sentance.
That second example was somewhat contrived, but does the job; it could have been two sentences.
Actually, there’s another place I use them, but it’s not a “rule” and if more style: I use them selectively in place of periods to prevent a series of short, choppy sentences.
Same. I was taught in school but never learned how to use them until I read this (The Oatmeal).
You would use a semi-colon in places where a comma and a colon would be equally suitable, pretty much.
Where a period or a comma followed by “And” would go. Semicolon is a full break, distinctly more than a comma