Honors 9th Literature Daily Grammar/PSAT Practice #28 Semicolons and Colons
A semicolon signals a longer pause than a comma, but a short pause than a period. It can replace a
period, but not a comma.
When to Use a Semicolon
Example
In place of a period to separate two simple
As many as 30,000 people lived in the Four
sentences
Corners area one thousand years ago; many
resided in Chaco Canyon
Before a conjunctive adverb (however, therefore) The Anasazi were fearful of something; therefore,
that links two independent clauses
they left their villages and moved south and east.
To separate items in a series when those items
I met with a photographer form a newspaper; a
already contain commas
professor, who was retired, from the University of
Arizona; and seven or eight grad students.
A colon also signals a pause and alerts a reader to pay close attention to what follows.
When to Use a Colon
Example
To introduce a list
The area around Chaco Canyon has many items of
interest: the ruins, climate, wildlife, and
vegetation.
To introduce a word or phrase you want to
After a certain point, my father holds out his hand
emphasize
and scowls to make his point: no more discussion
allowed.
To separate the hour and minutes
8:15 a.m.
To separate a title and subtitle
The Anasazi: A Story of Survival
After the greeting in a business letter
Dear Mr. Mayor:
To introduce a long, formal quotation
The final report on the decline of the cliff dwellers
reached a startling conclusion: “The Anasazi
faced several serious threats, any one of which
could have led to their decline.”
Try it: Place semicolons and colons where needed.
1. The Southwest, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado the North and the
Northwest all are home to native peoples.
2. The Pueblo people live in the following states New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
3. The Sioux wore beaded shirts the Cheyenne chose buckskin pants and dresses.
4. The only book at the library was Pueblo Nations Eight Centuries of Pueblo Indian History.
5. Pueblo culture and art are fascinating however their language is even more intriguing.
Identify the sentence error. If an underlined word or phrase contains a grammatical error, choose the
part that must be changed to correct the sentence.
The broken watch stopped at 12 . 00 p . m .
A
B
C D
Improve the sentence. Select the answer choice that best expresses the meaning of the underlined
portion of the original sentence.
Native Americans in the United States are known by many names American Indians, First Nations,
Original Americans, and First Americans.
A. Native Americans in the United States are known by many names:
B. Native Americans in the United States are known by many names;
C. Native Americans in the United States are known by many names.
D. Native Americans in the United States are known by many names,
Identify parts of speech: noun, pronoun (type and case), verb (type and tense), adverb, adjective,
preposition, conjunction (type), gerund, participle, infinitive, article
i hope that you can come to the game because we are playing the cougars
Identify sentence parts: subject, verb (transitive or intransitive), direct object, indirect object,
predicate nominative, predicate adjective, appositive or appositive phrase, prepositional phrase
(adjective or adverb), gerund phrase, infinitive phrase, participial phrase, object of preposition, object
of infinitive, object of gerund, object of participle, objective complement, subject of infinitive
i hope that you can come to the game because we are playing the cougars
Identify clauses and sentence type: independent, adverb, dependent, adjective dependent, noun
dependent; simple, compound, complex, compound complex
i hope that you can come to the game because we are playing the cougars
Add punctuation and capitalization: end punctuation, commas, semicolons, apostrophes,
underlining, quotation marks
i hope that you can come to the game because we are playing the cougars
Make a practice sentence that mimics this week’s sentence. Be sure to use the same parts of speech
and parts of the sentence.