Many of you have been asking for help with punctuating between clauses and phrases within sentences. You want to know when you should use a comma and when you need a semicolon. Here are a few rules with examples that I hope you find very helpful.<\/p>\n
Rule:<\/strong> Use a comma between two independent clauses when conjunctions such as and<\/em>, or<\/em>, but<\/em>, for<\/em>, nor<\/em> connect them.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/em> I have painted the entire house, but she is still working on sanding the floors.<\/em><\/p>\n Rule:<\/strong> If the clauses are short (your call), then leave out the comma.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/em> I painted and he sanded.<\/em><\/p>\n Rule:<\/strong> If you have only one clause (one subject and verb pair), you generally won’t need a comma in front of the conjunction.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/em> I have painted the house but still need to sand the floors.<\/em> So when does the semicolon get to have its time in the spotlight?<\/p>\n Rule:<\/strong> Use the semicolon if you have two independent clauses you are connecting without a conjunction.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/em> I have painted the house; I still need to sand the floors.<\/em><\/p>\n Rule:<\/strong> Also, use the semicolon when you have commas for smaller separations, and you need the semicolon to show a bigger separation.<\/p>\n Example:<\/strong><\/em> We had a reunion with family from Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Albany, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop Quiz<\/strong> 1a. I attend the fashion shows and my husband goes to the jazz clubs. 2a. I love fashion and he loves jazz. 3a. I attend the fashion shows but not the jazz clubs. 4a. I attend the fashion shows my husband goes to the jazz clubs. 5a. I buy cheese, milk, and eggs at my neighborhood market apples, oranges, and grapes from the farmers\u2019 market and aspirin, shaving cream, and deodorant from the pharmacy. <\/p>\n Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n 1b. I attend the fashion shows, and my husband goes to the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n 2a. I love fashion and he loves jazz.<\/p>\n 3a. I attend the fashion shows but not the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n 4c. I attend the fashion shows; my husband goes to the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n 5c. I buy cheese, milk, and eggs at my neighborhood market; apples, oranges, and grapes from the farmers\u2019 market; and aspirin, shaving cream, and deodorant from the pharmacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many of you have been asking for help with punctuating between clauses and phrases within sentences. You want to know when you should use a comma and when you need a semicolon. Here are a few rules with examples that I hope you find very helpful. Commas Rule: Use a comma between two independent clauses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commas","category-semicolons"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis sentence has two verbs but only one subject, so it has only one clause.<\/p>\nSemicolons<\/h2>\n
\nSelect the correctly punctuated sentence.<\/p>\n
\n1b. I attend the fashion shows, and my husband goes to the jazz clubs.
\n1c. I attend the fashion shows; and my husband goes to the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n
\n2b. I love fashion, and he loves jazz.
\n2c. I love fashion; and he loves jazz.<\/p>\n
\n3b. I attend the fashion shows, but not the jazz clubs.
\n3c. I attend the fashion shows; but not the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n
\n4b. I attend the fashion shows, my husband goes to the jazz clubs.
\n4c. I attend the fashion shows; my husband goes to the jazz clubs.<\/p>\n
\n5b. I buy cheese, milk, and eggs at my neighborhood market, apples, oranges, and grapes from the farmers\u2019 market, and aspirin, shaving cream, and deodorant from the pharmacy.
\n5c. I buy cheese, milk, and eggs at my neighborhood market; apples, oranges, and grapes from the farmers\u2019 market; and aspirin, shaving cream, and deodorant from the pharmacy.<\/p>\n