/lit/ - Literature

Wrong; I will.

I actually DON'T know how to use these and would love to. Someone care to explain?

it's, like, when you don't tooootally want two sentences, but, like, you sorta maybe do

OP seems to be talking shit; he's not using it well himself.

>>2450002
"just make two sentences, faggot"
-Ernest Hemingway

>>2450002
by the way, you don't write buts after commas

I thought it was for dividing up lists with commas

Example:

My favorite towns to visit are Jackson, Mississippi; Atlanta, Georgia; and Sacramento, California.

It's more powerful than a comma, for a sentence in which you want to promote two clauses related to each other.

Right?

Also this >>2450028

>>2450029
two INDEPENDENT clauses. Very important caveat. Misusing a semicolon is like jacking off to CP; if someone finds out, you might as well kill yourself.

>>2450014

This man uses it right; it is clear that he is a scholar.

>>2450045
>Misusing a semicolon is like jacking off to CP; if someone finds out, you might as well kill yourself.

Semicolons are the biggest stop in speech one can have in a single sentence; more than a comma but less than a complete full stop.

>>2450066
Thank you for noticing that. I scratched my head for minutes trying to whip up an apt analogy.

>>2450045

Thank god I never use semicolons then.

They told me to walk straight; I walked straight.

i can do any; goddamn thing i want

I use it for causality.


John dropped the ball; it bounced.

>>2450026

Not normally, but, like, he put in a "like" after the but. It's a, like, aside, like...that needs to be, like, separated, like...

captcha explanation odstpar

Is "tl;dr" a correct use of the semi-colon?

>>2450140

short for

"It is too long; I didn't read it"

so...yeah

>>2450140


Yes. Refer to >>2450131

The text was too long; I didn't read it.
I looked at the sky; it looked blue to me.

Charlotte looked truly beautiful for once; she hadn't yet noticed that somebody was watching.

Just use a colon.

>>2450140

No, it's origin can be found in the caps-locked version "TL;DR"
The "," becomes a ";" in capslock.

>>2450982
That is utterly wrong. What the fuck is wrong with your keyboard?

the rules of proper punctuation
can lead the writer to frustration
proofreaders fill your life with drama
should you misplace a simple,
and errors more than myriad
should you omit a.
perhaps sometimes and for a lark
you'll use an!
but critics mock you and with glee
for botching an'
and act as though your wits are stolen
if you misplace a;
so my advice to you is this
if you would share prosaic bliss
eschew these critical eclipses
and end your clauses with...

I usually use it in place of 'as'. I think I'm doing it right.

>>2451016

use it instead of "because" or "therefor" Judiciously

I drank too much again last night; the whole testing thing was bothering me.

course a period would work just as well, most of the time.

>>2450994

sorry for this: the weekend puts me in "drive-by poet" mode these days.

If no one semicolon properly, maybe the problem isn't everyone but the semicolon; the judge; the judgement; OP is a faggot.

, ; : indicate increasing lengths of pauses. It depends how you want your sentences read.

>>2451065

you can make an ellipsis out of semi-colons? news to me. Or what are you getting at here?

>that feel when i often use semicolons between two long, elaborate sentences and i feel someone will think im misusing it because it sounds awkward but it makes perfect sense to me

>>2450029
>It's more powerful than a comma

this made me laugh so fucking hard.

>>2452040
The mighty, mighty semicolon.

I never get why people don't understand semi-colons. When I grade student essays so many use semi-colons in place of colons. So much of my rage.

>>2450994

hahaha!

OC!

>>2451065
I thought the colon was used to emphasize the text that follows it, whereas the semicolon was to connect two related clauses

Hey; your probably right.

>>2452365


You can't even use you're right; you're most likely to be a retard.

>>2452371
File name. Oh wait, that's right I'm not on /b/...