Study finds a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last two decades(theconversation.com)
theconversation.com
Study finds a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last two decades
https://theconversation.com/semicolons-are-becoming-increasingly-rare-their-disappearance-should-be-resisted-257019
35 comments
The semicolon has always been the neglected underdog of punctuation; I try to sneak one in wherever I think I can get away with it.
I would like to disagree with you; however, your sentiment is based on sound grammar.
The crazy thing about semicolons is that they were once common in books intended for young adults/middle readers. See E. Nesbit and co. When I read the childrens' authors of early 20C Britain, I often think their writing is more demanding that books marketed to today's adults.
Good riddance. I'll go with what Vonnegut said on them.
“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”
“Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.”
It's certainly a crisis in the Lisp world; everyone seems to be writing fewer comments.
Outside of coding, I seldom use semicolons; however, they do have their uses in certain cases—when there are two complete thoughts in the sentence.
The cited Guardian article is worth reading as well if you're interested; there's a usage quiz with it: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/18/marked-decli...
"I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow."
— Abraham Lincoln
I'm more curious about the usage of em/en dash, most people in my life had no idea it existed.
I myself only discovered them for the first time when reading a punctuation site to ensure I was using semicolons grammatically correctly.
I myself only discovered them for the first time when reading a punctuation site to ensure I was using semicolons grammatically correctly.
I always used three hyphens in place of the emdash; easier to type.
While I've seen it in tooling like markdown--with two being an endash--that's very very wide... I am very sure the convention has always been to use two hyphens for an mdash (which is even easier to type! ;P).
Some of my acquaintances were doing the same, but unintentionally.
I had also thought news articles and the like were using regular hyphens that were extended due to some weird font.
I had also thought news articles and the like were using regular hyphens that were extended due to some weird font.
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I've been using double hyphens (which auto-corrects to emdash now) for as long as I can remember. Now that it's a marker of AI, I find myself removing it whenever I reply to comments.
Commas, on the, other hand, are turning up, everywhere.
https://theonion.com/commas-turning-up-everywhere-1819569774...
https://theonion.com/commas-turning-up-everywhere-1819569774...
Periods too. Periods and commas are being used incorrectly in place of semicolons, ellipses, and em dashes.
I've seen people use them as a way to replace pauses in speech. I see it more with boomers / Gen-X.
example:
he isn't wrong... why do you think that ... it's a good thing
example:
he isn't wrong... why do you think that ... it's a good thing
Netizens frequently misuse question marks in place of periods to indicate surprise?
And what even do they use even after interrogatories for? What even is that?
And what even do they use even after interrogatories for? What even is that?
still beats people? who talk? like this?
Personally I have been using em dash(or some other kind of dash) for everything these days.
I know it's probably wrong, but I got the feeling that people won't roast me over a fire if I use it incorrectly.
I know it's probably wrong, but I got the feeling that people won't roast me over a fire if I use it incorrectly.
I think they forgot to include *.js *.ts *.c *.cpp *.java
with where we are heading, we might see the 90% drop in the use of –
So I guess we are doing our part here ? Trying to sneak one semicolon for the count ?
I'm not sure even when to even use them correctly.
They always fall flat or make sound pretentious; both of which I try to avoid.
I will miss the semicolon, but I'm more concerned about punctuation in general. If I punctuate a text message my teenage daughter will respond "are you mad at me"
Whenever someone misuses the word mad, I think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ao4WTcMtY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ao4WTcMtY8
I deliberately use punctuation to flex and intimidate others. Only those undaunted by the weird glyphs are worthy of my respect.
It's hard af to type on screen keyboards, especially with increasingly-wrong autocorrect keyboards.
The semicolon was always a confusing symbol; it makes even less sense in typical text-style conversations on phones. you can use a period in its place most of the time.
I would like to say this about colons.
Semicolons means the sentence is too hard, sometimes it will look easier with parentheses.
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The utility : pretentiousness ratio is too low.