Semicolons Becoming Increasingly Rare; Their Disappearance Should Be Resisted

Study Finds ^ | May 21, 2025 | Roslyn Petelin, The University of Queensland

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t recall the semicolon; but thanks for the excuse to bring Borge in- he is dearly missed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPc0aijY2o4

[MinorityRepublican]

Texting and email use has been the main reason that punctuation is disappearing.

Yep. Our language is evolving. Which is natural.

[Red Badger]

IIRC, my 6th grade English teacher said to use semicolons to link two phrases about the same subject...........

[DariusBane]

No reason to use a semicolon; semicolon is outdated redundant and most of all perplexing.

[Common Sense 101]

I use them all the time... mostly out of spite.

[dfwgator]

One of greatest comedy routines of all time.

[Red Badger]

I never knew that; however, I never thought about it, either...........

[Old Griz]

Had a friend who had prostate surgery, and after he always said he had a semicolon and his wife had a period.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I never think to use it. Then I have to spend an hour trying to remember when to use it. 😆

[21twelve]

Darn. I was hoping to be the first to bring up Victor. Here is a 4 minute video of it; for Ronald Reagan (inauguration?).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPc0aijY2o4

[JimRed]

According to the rules of grammar, how many SHOULD there be for every 390 words?

[Adder]

The semicolons in the Dumblecrat party have been replaced by full colons...

[Red Badger]

Maybe we should put it on the endangered species list; or not.................

[Ciaphas Cain]

Kurt Vonnegut HATED semicolons. He thought they were absolutely worthless.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t see how writing can really be elegant without them. They make things flow.

[DennisR]

It really bugs me when people either use a comma or a colon instead of a semicolon.

[DennisR]

Au contraire, mon ami. If you have a list such as the following:

“Who all went to the ball game? My sister, my mother, Joan, my brother, Ted, my uncle, and my aunt.”

How many people went to the game?

[sopo]

neglect of the “comma and rule” chokes the semicolon out of existence.

[omni-scientist]

Losing the semi- colon would free up a keyboard space for another valuable function. Like say, an emoji escape.

[JimRed]

The words “however” and “therefore” are always preceded by a semi-colon and followed by a comma.

However, this sentence does not need a semicolon preceding it.. Therefore, "always preceded by" is an overstatement.