Examples Of Semi Colons In A Sentence

Can you give me an example of using a colon in a sentence?

There are 4 primary uses for a colon.

1. To announce the effect of something
We heard the bell ring: the school day had begun.

2.To indicate a descriptive list
Our new neighbors have 4 children: Eva, Greg, Sam and Jose.
or to separate elements, such as chapters or time
Please read Act 1:Scene 1 of Hamlet and write an essay about it.
Please be here promptly at 12:45p.

3. to indicate that two statements are parallels of each other
My brother was furious: he yelled and stamped his feet.

4. in place of quotation marks, to divide two statements
I believe my mother coined this phrase: Whoever said it would be fair?

When do i use a semicolon (;)? Examples?

Following are examples from Wiktionary from Wikipedia.

English usage
Semicolons are followed by a lower case letter, unless that letter begins a proper noun. They have no spaces before them, but one or two spaces after. Applications of the semicolon in English include:

Between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with a co-ordinating conjunction:
"I went to the swimming pool; I was told it was closed for routine maintenance."
"A man chooses; a slave obeys."
Between independent clauses linked with a transitional phrase or a conjunctive adverb: "I like to eat cows; however, I don't like to be eaten by them."
Between items in a series or listing containing internal punctuation, especially parenthetic commas, where the semicolons function as serial commas:
"She saw three men: Donald, who came from New Zealand; Jon, the milkman's son; and George, a gaunt kind of man."
"Several fast food restaurants can be found in each of London, England; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; and Madrid, Spain."
"Examples of familiar sequences are: one, two, and three; a, b, and c; and first, second, and third."

Her's an example from myself: (see the colon, not a semicolon here?)
She likes fruit, apples; oranges, the orange colored kind; bananas and cherries.

In a list, semicolons are used to separate the items in the list, commas are used within the list to describe an item in the list.
;-)

Can you help with examples of sentences with semicolon use?

The easiest way to understand semicolon usage is by thinking of joining together what might work as 2 complete sentences, but without "and", "but", etc.

Example:

It had been raining. The ground was still wet. (It's OK this way, but these are such short sentences and they are so closely related, you'd want to put them together into one sentence.)
It had been raining; the ground was still wet. (Here you go: two "independent clauses" (things that would stand as sentences if they had to) joined by a semicolon: the main legitimate way of using a semicolon.)
It had been raining, and the ground was still wet. (Well, you can do it this way, but you end up with too many ands, buts etc. if you always join shorter sentences together like this.)

You can also use a semicolon if you have a long sentence with too many commas, but you can't very well shorten the sentence. In this case you replace the most important comma with a semicolon.

Similarly, you should use a semicolon between each item in a list if each item itself contains a comma:

He asked all his friends to the party: Jane, whom he considered his girlfriend; John, who would be offended if not asked; the Thomas twins, who were always good fun; and Pat, who would come anyway and so might as well be invited formally.

Can you use two colons in a sentence?

Hm... I've never given it much thought. In order to avoid the double colon issue, I'd rephrase it as this:

In his spare time, Michael spends time with his favorite people; his lovely wife, Nicole, and their three beautiful daughters, Tracy, Ronda, and Melanie, are the highlights of his day.

I'm not sure how you feel about the addition at the end, but it sounded better to me with the substitution of the semicolon (creating another independent clause). However, I'm also baffled at how to get that same rhythm created in the original sentence without at least two colons. Hopefully this helped.

Edit: Someone's already mentioned this, but you could also try to replace the second colon with a comma. However, it seems a bit outrageous in a sense while writing it out... Maybe it's the heavy concentration of commas in that last part of the sentence, but it doesn't seem correct either.

How to use a semi colon in a sentence.?

Simply put, semicolons can be used in the place of the applicable conjunctions.

Using the above examples:

'Call me tomorrow; we will talk then.'

'Call me tomorrow, and we will talk then.'

'Some people prefer cats; others prefer dogs.'

'Some people prefer cats, but others prefer dogs.'

When to use a semi-colon in your sentences?

OK, I am a former English teacher, and just answered this question for someone else, so I think I can help you out ;)

The primary use of a semicolon is to separate two independent clauses. What that means in plain english is that if you can cut it in half, and both sides make sense, use a semicolon. It doesn't matter what the sentence says, or whether it is opposite ideas, or anything else. The only thing that matters is whether or not the parts are complete sentences.

Examples:

I love to smell flowers; spring is my favorite season.
Yahoo! Answers is cool; I get good advice there.

NOT:
In medieval times; knights wore armor.
I tripped; and scraped my knee.

When to use semicolon in a sentence?

Use the semicolon often; it is very useful.

Firstly, in lists where the description of one or more items in the list requires a comma, and therefore you need something 'stronger' than a comma to separate the list. This is especially so when there is a list of groups, for example:-- 'There were three groups of friends: George, William, Mary; John, Joe, Sam; Fred, Bernard, and James.' In this example, using commas between the names would make it conpletely unclear who the three groups are as you would simply have a list of nine individuals.

Secondly, the semicolon can serve as a substitute for a word such as 'and' or 'but' where such a word just doesn't seem to fit or where you want to use brevity to create a certain atmosphere in what you are writing. For example, if you write 'use the semicolon often, and it is very useful' the sentence makes some sense but just feels wrong, but write 'use the semicolon often; it is very useful' then that sentence is flawless. Or for a feeling of suspense, 'He squeezed the trigger, and the shot echoed throughout the precinct' is O.K., but 'He squeezed the trigger; the shot echoed throughout the precinct' is more powerful. Of course, in the latter example you could use a full stop, but that all depends on how it fits in with the surrounding text.

Thirdly, if you are using certain words such as 'however' then the semicolon is often indispensible. To write 'The match approached the ninetieth minute, however, the game was not all over' could be subject to several interpretations and is really quite badly written, but to write 'The match approached the ninetieth minute; however, the game was not all over' makes much better sense. In this example, you need the more powerful semicolon before the word 'however' to contrast the weaker comma after that word.

I could give a more academic answer, but I think this answers your question more insightfully--as in essence the semicolon is a stylistic tool and as such should be treated artfully.