Do you ever use semicolons? How the fuck do they work?

>>9135792
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semicolon#Usage

Literally just taught a remedial English class how to properly use semi-colons. It really isn't hard. Check the first part of this site:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/44/

I have no idea how they work but I use them all the time and nobody tells me I'm doing it wrong.

I only use them when I'm creating a list of examples in various writing; essays, prose, creative writing as well as death threats.

I also like to use the phrase 'as well as' to avoid using an Oxford comma.

>>9135819
Most likely because they also don't know how to use them and don't want to say anything

>>9135792
Semicolons work like periods; you use a semicolon to join two sentences without the use of a period.

You also use them to replace commas in certain situations.

The wiki page the other anon linked explains it well.

>>9135792
Yes; I have no idea

To connect two independent, yet connected, clauses.

Semicolons are hinges (colons are arrows, indicating that the thought in complete clause before the colon is explained or completed by the words after). You take two complete clauses that could be stand-alone sentences, but the relationship between the thoughts is a bit closer than that, so you want to indicate a connection, so you hinge the thoughts together.
Or, if you're making a list that already involves commas not separating items of the list, you use semicolons between list items to clarify.

Suppose I structured a sentence:

The hill towered over us; steep and insurmountable.

Is that proper usage? Or would a comma suffice?

>>9137330

is steep and insurmountable an independent clause?

>>9137330
that's a comma

The hills towered over us; they were steep and insurmountable.

there you go

>>9137330
That's incorrect, and required a comma. The second clause is subordinate. You only use a semicolon to join two independent clauses (that could stand alone as sentences with periods), and the list thing.

>>9137330
>>9137337
>>9137339
>>9137343
What about if it was phrased

We approached the hill; steep and insurmountable.

?

Where the hill isn't the subject of the first clause but the second clause pertains to it.

>>9136074
No I find I use them correctly; it's just not something I have to think about.

>>9137378
still a comma

>>9137378
Nope, sorry. As I said, both parts have to be independent clauses (full sentences). "Steep and insurmountable" is not a complete sentence.

>>9135809
too long; didn't read.

>>9135792
I like fucking chipmunks; they like when I fuck them, too.

>>9137378
We approached the hill; it was steep and insurmountable.

>>9135792
It's a full stop or also sometimes, when you're putting in a comma that you really don't want the reader to miss, it's a comma.

>>9137410
Just because they're fancy doesn't mean they demand full sentences.

>>9137718
What? I don't know how to make this simpler: you can generally use semicolons to connect complete independent clauses.
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Semicolons.html

>>9137395
Well I would say this is a superfluous usage seeing as how the semi-colon could easily (and more appropriatley) be replaced by a comma; style should always be accounted for.

>>9137718
Jenny never stopped complaining of her constant Crohn's; Mike wanted to stab her.

You can also use em dashes for a different effect. Cuts a bit more.

Burt had already planned for a violent outburst at church—his balls were polished and ready.

>>9135792
I use them pretty much too much; I use them wrong a lot too I don't care.

>>9135792
I just treat them like periods but for sentences that are short and/or closely related. Also for really long lists

commas work most of the time anymore, semicolons are kind of obsolete in practice.

I generally only use them if it's a long sentence, and several commas have already been used, and I want to join a separate thing at the end; like your me busting all over your fat mom's tits.

Even if you never use them, nobody is really going to complain.