Writing- : and ;

Hi minsui0423,

Good question! Typically, colons (:) are used when there is a list of some sort, like in your first example. Another example would be: I have three classes of homework tonight: History, Science, and Algebra. So yes, your second sentence would be correct. The semicolon (;) is usually used as a greater separation than a comma. Like your first example, I couldn't do my homework Thursday; I was sick yesterday. In sentences with semicolons, you can sometimes break the sentence apart: I couldn't do my homework could be a sentence, and I was sick yesterday could be too. However, because the sentences are related, they are joined with the semicolon. Another example with a semicolon would be: The wind blew so hard last night; there were many power outages.  

Hope this could help! If you have any more questions, please let me know :)

tAG54

Thanks!! Can I ask one more?

Capitalism is a controversial economic system. The argument that capitalism rewards innovation and hard work has been made by some people, while others believe it encourages greed.

 The answer was ''system: some argue that it rewards innovation and hard work''.

In this sentence, can I use (;) instead of :

I’d say it could go either way, but you teacher or instructor’s thoughts might differ on that :)

If you want more information on colons and semicolons, you can find Khan Academy’s lessons over them here.

Sorry, but I can't open the page:( It said

"Sorry, the page you were trying to load doesn't exist."

 

 

Hmm.. that’s odd. Try going to this link: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar. If it works, scroll down and you should see a section that says, “Punctuation: The colon, semicolon, and more”. If it doesn’t, go to your home page on Khan Academy. Click the “Courses” drop-down menu, and under “Arts and Humanities” you should see “Grammar” at the very bottom. Click that, and it should take you to the link I just gave you :)

I can open it now! Thank you for big help