When is a semicolon used in a sentence? Answering this question is not as easy as it might seem. Russian grammar is considered one of the most difficult just because of such rules. In this article, we will try to answer the question posed and consider all possible options statements in the sentence of this
Semicolon: Rules
This is placed between two or more independent sentences, which are combined into one without auxiliary unions. At the same time, the probability of setting a semicolon increases if these sentences are common and have commas inside.
"In the meantime, tea was drunk; the horses harnessed for a long time were chilled in the cold; the moon shimmered faintly in the west and was preparing to plunge into gloomy clouds sitting on the distant mountains like pieces of a torn curtain."
“Everything around was frozen in an autumn dream; through the graying haze, wide fields under the mountains are barely visible; they are dissected by the Volga, spread across it and melted into fog.”
When is a semicolon used in compound sentences?
Compound sentences (CSP) are sentences that are interconnected with the help of a coordinating connection. The parts that make up such proposals are considered equal, that is, independent of each other.
So, we found out which sentences are called compound sentences. But in what cases is it necessary to put a semicolon? So, this is appropriate in the following cases.
Firstly, if the independent sentences that make up the BSC are connected by the conjunctions “however”, “but”, “nevertheless”, “nevertheless”, etc.
"I only had blue paint; but, despite this fact, I decided to depict the autumn hunt."
“It would seem that she had absolutely no reason to go to him, and he himself was not very happy with her; however, she came and lived with him for whole weeks, and sometimes much more.”
Note! Before the union "a" our punctuation mark is placed only if the sentences that it combines have several commas inside and are significantly common.
"It seemed to me that he began to cry; but I must tell you that Vitka was a stubborn boy, and it happened that you couldn’t knock out tears from him, even when he was younger."
Secondly, if it were possible to put an end between the sentences that make up the SSP, if they were not connected by the unions “yes” (in the meaning “and”) and “and”.
She read a book, thinking about what she was reading, pausing to listen to Nina Arkadyevna, who chatted tirelessly; and at the same time, various pictures of a future life together and household without any connection presented themselves to her inner gaze.
Sentences with common homogeneous members
Now let's talk about when a semicolon is used in a sentence with common homogeneous members. Usually put when they have one or more commas inside.
“In the darkness, all the same vague outlines of objects were vaguely represented: in the distance, a blue-black wall, the same spots on it; next to me - the rump of a horse, which, waving its tail, opened its mouth wide; the back of a horse in a white Circassian coat, on which one could see the whitish head of a pistol in a makeshift holster and a rifle in a dark case swayed; the flame of a cigarette illuminating a reddish mustache, a beaver collar and a hand in a leather glove. (L. N. Tolstoy).
“People were here from the villages and from the farms and the city, detained on suspicion that they were Soviet workers, partisans, communists, Komsomol members; people who, by word or deed, insulted German uniforms; people who hid their Jewish roots; people arrested for not having papers and simply because they are human.” (A. A. Fadeev).
Complex sentences
When else is a semicolon used in a sentence? This punctuation mark is placed between the subordinate (common) clauses, if they are not connected by a union, and they are subordinate to one main one. This rule becomes mandatory if subordinate clauses there are other adjuncts.
“The difference is that, instead of the violent will that united them at school, they independently abandoned their mothers and fathers and fled from their fathers' homes; that there were also those who already had a rope around their necks and who, instead of a gloomy death, saw real life, and life in all its unbridled revelry; that there were those who, according to a long and noble custom, could not keep a penny in their pockets. (N. V. Gogol).
Indicating boundaries between sentences
We continue to describe cases when a semicolon is placed in a sentence. If the semantic component requires the reader to accurately see the boundary between a group of sentences and individual sentences, a semicolon is placed between:
- several independent proposals;
- several subordinate clauses related to a single main.
“In that garden there were a huge number of crows, their nests covered the tops of the trees, they circled around them and croaked loudly; sometimes, especially in the evening, they took off in whole hundreds, raising others and making noise; sometimes one of them will fly hastily from one tree to another, and everything will calm down again. (A. I. Herzen).
Enumerations
We have considered in which sentences a semicolon is placed, now let's talk about enumerations.
Ours is placed after the headings of the enumeration. But only if these headings cannot act as independent sentences, but at the same time they are quite common, and some other punctuation marks have already been placed inside them.
“Because of this use of mines, the following requirements were presented to them:
- so that a mine accidentally detached and floating freely on the surface of the water cannot harm a vessel passing by it;
- so that at the time of the installation of the barriers, the mines do not pop up, thus indicating to the enemy the places of the barrier;
- increasing safety when laying mines (Akademik Krylov).
Thus, a semicolon can be placed both in complex sentences and when listing something.
Semicolon
§ 130. A semicolon is placed between independent clauses combined into one compound sentence without the help of conjunctions, especially if such sentences are significantly common and have commas inside them (for a comma between independent clauses combined into one compound, see §§ 137 and 138), for example :
- Meanwhile tea was drunk; long-harnessed horses chilled in the snow; the moon grew pale in the west and was about to plunge into its black clouds hanging on the distant peaks like shreds of a torn curtain.
Lermontov
Everything around was frozen in a strong autumn dream; through the grayish haze, broad meadows are barely visible under the mountain; they were cut by the Volga, spread over it and blurred, melted into mists.
M. Gorky
§ 131. A semicolon is placed between independent sentences that are combined into one complex sentence and interconnected:
1. Unions but, however, still, nonetheless etc., especially if these sentences are very common or have commas inside them (for a comma before these conjunctions, see §§ 137 and 138). for example:
- I only had blue paint; but, despite this, I started to draw a hunt.
L. Tolstoy
It would seem that there was absolutely no reason for her to go to him, and he himself was not too happy with her; however, she went and lived with him for whole weeks, and sometimes more.
Herzen
Note. before the union a A semicolon is used only when the sentences it links are very common and have commas inside them, for example:
- I thought he was crying; but I must tell you that Azamat was a stubborn boy, and nothing happened, you won’t knock out tears from him, even when he was younger ...
Lermontov
There are only eccentrics around you, all eccentrics; and you live with them for two or three years, and little by little, unnoticed by yourself, you become an eccentric.
Chekhov
2. Unions and and Yes (in the meaning of "and") only when they connect two sentences that would otherwise be separated by a period. (In such cases, sentences beginning with conjunctions and, yes, are connecting by the nature of the connection.) For example:
- He was reading a book, thinking about what he was reading, stopping to listen to Agafya Mihailovna, who chattered tirelessly; and at the same time different pictures of the economy and the future family life without connection presented themselves to his imagination.
L. Tolstoy
Almost every evening later they went somewhere out of town, to Oreanda or to a waterfall; and the walk was a success, the impressions were invariably beautiful and majestic every time.
Chekhov
§ 132. A semicolon is placed between common homogeneous members of a sentence, especially if there are commas inside at least one of them, for example:
- In the darkness, the same obscure objects vaguely appeared: in a certain distance a black wall, the same moving spots; next to me is the croup of a horse, which, wagging its tail, widely spread its hind legs; a back in a white Circassian coat, on which a rifle in a black case swayed and a white head of a pistol in an embroidered holster was visible; a cigarette light illuminating a blond mustache, a beaver collar and a hand in a suede glove.
L. Tolstoy
Here were people from the city and from the villages and farms, detained on suspicion that they were Soviet workers, partisans, communists, Komsomol members; people who, by act or word, insulted the German uniform; people who hid their Jewish origin; people detained for being undocumented and simply for being human.
Fadeev
§ 133. A semicolon is placed between widely distributed subordinate clauses that are subordinate to the same main clause, if there is no coordinating conjunction between the subordinate clauses, especially when there are, in turn, subordinate clauses within such clauses, for example:
- I will not tolerate a corrupter with fire and sighs and praises to tempt a young heart; so that the despicable, poisonous worm sharpened the stem of the lily; so that the two-morning flower withered still half-open.
Pushkin
The difference is that, instead of the violent will that united them at school, they themselves abandoned their fathers and mothers and fled from their parental homes; that there were those who already had a rope around their necks and who, instead of a pale death, saw life, and life in all revelry; that there were those who, according to noble custom, could not keep a penny in their pocket ...
Gogol
§ 134. A semicolon is placed between groups of independent clauses, as well as between groups of subordinate clauses related to the same main clause, if it is necessary to indicate the boundaries between groups of sentences, in contrast to the boundaries between individual sentences, for example:
- There were many crows in the garden, their nests were covered with the tops of trees, they circled around them and croaked; sometimes, especially in the evening, they fluttered up, by the hundreds, making noise and raising others; sometimes one of them will quickly fly from tree to tree and everything will calm down ...
Herzen
The people of this party said and thought that everything bad comes mainly from the presence of the sovereign with the military court at the army, that the army has transferred that indefinite, conditional and vacillating precariousness of relations, which is convenient at court, but harmful in the army; that the sovereign needs to reign, and not manage the army, that the only way out of this situation is the departure of the sovereign with his court from the army; that the mere presence of the sovereign paralyzes 50,000 troops needed to ensure his personal security; that the worst but independent commander-in-chief will be the best, but bound by the presence and power of the sovereign.
L. Tolstoy
§ 135. A semicolon is placed at the end of the enumeration headings if these headings are not independent sentences, but are quite common, and especially if there are already any punctuation marks inside them, for example:
- This way of using mines made demands on them:
1) so that a mine detached from the anchor and floating on the surface cannot damage the ship that hits it;
2) that when setting up the barrier, there should be no floating mines that could indicate the location of the barrier, and such mines would sink;
3) increase the safety of setting min.
Academician A. N. Krylov
In the section on the question How to understand when to put a period at the end of a sentence? given by the author Simpleton the best answer is As a rule, this is heard by intonation. A period is put after a sentence that introduces a further presentation, if the latter is a detailed narrative, reasoning or description. For example: "And it all happened like this. Nejdanov, getting into the cart to Pavel, suddenly came into a very excited state."
A period is put at the end of a complete declarative sentence, both incomplete and complete.
A period can also be put in order to give expressiveness to the narrative, make it brighter, and emphasize the description. For example: "The waters flowed quietly. The sky was dimming. The sun was setting."
To correctly put a period, you need to find the end of the sentence, and this is not always as easy as it seems. After all, question and exclamation marks can also be placed at the end of a sentence. When you are going to punctuate a sentence, you need to consider this as well.
Answer from Kosoruky[guru]
A period should be placed at the end of a sentence. When you realize that your thought is over, or something like that.
Answer from Neurologist[guru]
When the offer ends.
Answer from Ivan Ivanov[guru]
always
and if by ear, then by intonation (the air in the speaker's lungs ends, the pitch drops)
and on dictations in Russian, I remember, we were always told "dot"
p.s. even in 11th grade
Known to many from the school bench common truth: if the sentence is narrative, then it always ends with a period. For reference, we recall that there are three types of intonation sentences: narrative, exclamatory (at the end, respectively, an exclamation mark is placed) and interrogative (with a question mark at the end).
However, there are some special use cases for the dot. All of them are described below.
The point is set:
1. At the end of a declarative sentence, and the composition of the sentence does not matter. A dot ends both full and incomplete sentences, unless they are exclamatory or interrogative. For example:
- The cat was basking in the sun. She was sleeping and snoring peacefully. Stretched sometimes. Sometimes she trembled in her sleep.
- Snow is shiny and bright. Blinds eyes. Involuntarily, you have to squint, otherwise it will hurt. It crunches underfoot, and beckons into the snow-white, cold distance.
- Is a poet with true talent. Who is the judge of his talent? Society (Belinsky).
2. In order to make the narrative more expressive after a series of short sentences, which are used in the text to create an overall picture or to show a quick change of actions. For example:
- Morning came. The sky reddened. Dawn broke.
- From the tent, surrounded by a crowd of favorites, comes Peter. His eyes are shining. His face is terrible. The movements are fast. He is beautiful, he is all, like God's thunderstorm. Goes. They bring him a horse (Pushkin).
- Sky. There are bright lines across the sky. Scary. It's mesmerizing. Warm up and look up.
3. Before the unions "and", "a", "yes", "but", "however" in cases where they start a new sentence, and do not link parts into a single whole. For example:
- I wanted something. But just don't run. And don't scream. And don't cry.
- I wanted to help him, honestly. Yes, but it didn't help.
- My father is a quiet man, but I have no doubt that he will take up arms. And the mother, with her character, will certainly take up arms (Fadeev)
4. At the end of the headings of the listing, but only if these headings are sufficiently developed on their own and (or) consist of several sentences. Also, a dot is placed in the headings of the enumeration and in cases where the sentences that form these headings already have several punctuation marks within themselves. For example:
- Summarizing all of the above, we can say:
“Two hundred years ago, the theory of the ship was born in our Academy of Sciences in the form of L. Euler's two-volume work Scientia Navalis.
- A few years later, the first work on structural mechanics appeared in the form of a memoir by the same Euler "Examen des efforts qu'ort à supporter ...".
— Throughout the nineteenth century. sailors were among the full members of the Academy of Sciences, and only from 1917 this was abandoned.
[A few more points follow.] (Academician A. N. Krylov).
5. After a sentence that serves as an input to that spacious statement, which follows after it. Often used in structures like:
- And the following happened.
He entered the room and saw what had happened. He screamed and fell to his knees. He burst into tears like a boy (followed by a detailed narrative).
on what. Finish something completely. As I was writing, events were unfolding in Russia, and it became clear to me that this book should not be put an end to, that this was the beginning of a great epic(A. N. Tolstoy. How the trilogy "Walking through the torments" was created).Phrasebook Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008 .
See what "Put an end" is in other dictionaries:
put an end to- to finish, to finish, to conclude, to round off, to finish, to finish, to finish, to finish off, to complete, to finish, to complete, to draw a line, to complete, to complete the Dictionary of Russian Synonyms ... Synonym dictionary
PUT A DOT- who [on what, in what] Finally complete what l., stop what l. This means that a person or a group of persons (X) must certainly complete the work they have begun, a conversation, sometimes interrupt some. relationship (P). Usually about a case or problem that ... ...
dot over i
PUT- I put, put, carry. (to deliver). 1. whom what. Give someone something. standing position, strengthen upright, place something. where n. so that it stands. Put the stick in a corner. Set up poles. Put flowers in a vase. Put books on the shelf. Bottles… … Dictionary Ushakov
put- vb., nsv., use. often Morphology: I bet, you bet, he/she/it bets, we bet, you bet, they bet, bet, bet, bet, bet, bet, bet, put, bet, bet, bet, bet; St. put 1. If you ... Dictionary of Dmitriev
PUT ON A POINT. PUT ON THE POINT. Obsolete Prost. 1. whom. To force someone to act, to behave properly; rein in. A shaggy lawyer, the sweetest and most understanding guy who promised to put everyone to the point. This one is from everyone... Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language
Set point early- POINT 1, and, f. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov
dot the i's- put / dot the “i” Finally, find out everything, clarify all the details, bring everything to its logical end. Usually with noun. with meaning person or object: professor, speaker, report, speech ... puts a dot over the "i". Marya… … Educational Phraseological Dictionary
DOTS ALL AND- who, what [in what] To bring complete clarity, to explain the state of affairs, leaving nothing unsaid. It means that a person or a group of persons (X), the result of work, which l. decision, opinion (Y) finally clarifies this or that situation (P). ... ... Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language
put / put on point- Simple. Obsolete 1. whom. Force someone. act, behave appropriately. 2. whom, what. Bring someone. or what l. in the right position, in the right shape. F 2, 112 ... Big dictionary of Russian sayings
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