English to French translation

Colon or semi-colon?

January 9, 2006

“You love your semicolons, don’t you?”

This comment by Paul, who I had asked to check a sentence that looked wrong to me, led to a discussion on the use of this useful punctuation mark. I was absolutely unable to explain how it is different from a colon or a full stop, as I use them all instinctively, like most people, I suppose. It just “looks right” in some sentences, but not in others. I looked for a definition of colon and semi-colon, and this is what the Penguin Guide to Punctuation tells us:

The colon is used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration or what precedes it. That is, having introduced some topic in more general terms, you can use a colon and go on to explain that same topic in more specific terms.
Example:
She wasn’t sure of one thing: the difference between a colon and a semi-colon.

The semicolon has only one major use. It is used to join two complete sentences into a single written sentence when all of the following conditions are met:
1. The two sentences are felt to be too closely related to be separated by a full stop;
2. There is no connecting word which would require a comma, such as and or but;
3. The special conditions requiring a colon are absent.
Example:
Her problem was clear; she didn’t know the difference between a colon and a semi-colon.

Now I probably should go through my archives to check that I have properly used all those semicolons…

Comments

I guess you will be aware of the highly amusing book on punctuation by Lynne Truss, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861976771/qid=1136832250/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-1161227-8614242). Certainly worth having a look at on this matter.
Your blog is also a good read, by the way.

I would add another use of the semicolon, i.e. in lists (and bullets, of course ;-) )

Thanks, I really enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves, although I don't share the author's "philosophy" when it comes to grammar: she clearly has no tolerance for deviations. I don't care so much about grammatical and spelling mistakes and place a greater importance on the communication aspect of language. In other words, I'd rather someone tortured grammar but expressed themselves rather than they kept quiet because they don't master the technical aspects of language.

AFAIK, semicolons are not used in the same manner in English and French. For example, compare the EU style guides in French and English: http://publications.eu.int/code/fr/fr-4100103.htm
http://publications.eu.int/code/en/en-4100202en.htm

The semi-colon. Stronger than a comma, but not quite a full-stop; for when you still have something related to say. I use them loads.

Fascinating blog...Parenthetically, every major news publication has its own style book, but not necessarily its own distinct style. (This could be why so many broadsheet papers read so much alike these days). There is one notable exception, however: the semicolon. From my time in newsrooms across two continents, the semicolon has either held a vaunted or verboten position. Magazines (and Americans) are semicolon-friendly; wire services (and the Brits) prefer the full-stop,-space,-new-sentence style. As for me, I'm a semicolon fan. ;-)

Previous
Tonton, Petit Nicolas, Raffarinade and Éléphant
January 5, 2006

Next
First language attrition
January 11, 2006