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S EMIC OL ONS

Many writers, GLO S S A RY REAL W OR L D
such as James Joyce, Clause A grammatical unit that contains Ben Jonson’s English Grammar
a subject and a verb. Sentences are
George Orwell, made up of one or more clauses. English dramatist Ben Jonson (1572–
Main clause A clause that makes 1637) is widely credited as the first
and Kurt Vonnegut complete sense on its own. person to set down rules on how to
have refused to use Subordinate clause A clause that use semicolons in English. His book
English Grammar, first published in
provides additional information but
semicolons, deeming depends on the main clause for it 1640, systematically examined the
to make sense. period, comma, semicolon, and colon.
them pointless. Before this, there were no accepted
standards on how to use these marks.

Before adverbs
A semicolon precedes certain adverbs,
such as however, therefore, consequently, However is used as
a conjunction here,
and nevertheless, when they are used as so it is preceded by
conjunctions to connect clauses. a semicolon.
June was hot; however, some

cities were rainy.

June was hot; however, some

Texas; and Boston, England.

Lists
When a sentence includes a list in which some
or all of the items already contain commas, Without the semicolons, the
reader might mistake Texas
semicolons are used to separate the list items. and England for cities.
This makes the sentence easier to follow.
Some cities were rainy: London;

Paris, Texas; and Boston, England.

Commas separate A region is needed A region is needed
cities from regions. to clarify which Paris to clarify which Boston
the text is referring to. the text is referring to.