"The dog managed to catch the frisbee, which no dog had done before" is betterer still...

Yeah, not bad. Not bad.

I'd still like to see the character of "the dog" developed a little further though...

Like so many times before and feeling a bead of sweat form on his sun-beaten brow, the dog launched himself upwards, jaws open, full of expectation edged with uncertainty, to retrieve the flying disc from it's azimuth; no dog had done this before.

I'd have written "... ;as no dog had done before"

In that example the semicolon separates the guts from the [LIFTED]. To my mind, Your wording requires a full stop. That's basically what I was taught.

To answer the OP; I do use the semicolon, but often I'm unsure.

"To answer the OP" was the [LIFTED]. The remainder was the guts.

I was always taught that semicolons require full sentences. "as no dog had done before" doesn't work on it's own as a sentence.

ou can also used semicolons to separate a list that contains items with punctation in.

i.e. I can see three people; Dave, a comedian; Chris, a DJ and Rachel, a producer.

So Cynical for one so young...

Yoof John, innit?!

Unlike the yoof, I try not to rely on Microsoft for my SPAG. I was, however, educated prior to 1999. I therefore, may have received one of some vague use.
Obviously not as much use as some of you though, or I would know the correct use of the semicolon and I do not.

As for it dying out; I think you'll find that it's been dying for far longer than the apostrophe. The apostrophe is still around for most of us. It's just been misunderstood by the latest generation IMO.

The "commas either side of things" phenomenon which some of you have discussed was also taught to me as "parentheses". Similar in use to brackets or indeed "", I concur with the consensus on their use. I've never really been happy without a comma in front of an "and" though tbh.

If someone *ahem* "older" who was actually educated before the system went soft could explain the semicolon, I'd be delighted to listen.

Other than separating items in a list. this is precisely where you would use a semi colon.

It occurs to me you can make the use of single commas consistent with the 'commas used to add extra detail in a sentence' rule by applying one simple subrule; if you have a comma directly next to a full stop you should drop the comma.

In the end the choices are largely about how you want the sentence to be paced and what emotional feel you want to give it. There are also a lot of inconsistencies between written English and spoken English which can be quite irritating.

Jon

Semicolons are pretty much used, when you want to end a sentace, but need to as more detail.

For instance. I went to the park for a walk; in the dark.

You see, I’d write this as either:

I went for a walk - in the dark.

Or, for a bit more impact (and to break the expected rhythm):
I went for a walk. In the dark.

My mum has a semi colon; part of it was removed surgically. No, really. It was.

Wikipedia is pretty good on punctuation, describing the semi-colon thus.

I find it particularly useful, as Wikipedia puts it, “Between items in a series or listing containing internal punctuation…”. This is often the case when I have to list computer or software specs or new features, bug fixes etc.

And as tool for linking closely related sentences it’s invaluable; it changes the sense of what you are writing.

Sorry, “in the dark” is not an independent clause so that should be a comma or a dash, but…



…not a hyphen: “I went for a walk—in the dark”.



Except that “In the dark” is not a sentence.

I know. I do that kind of thing deliberately.