TY - JOUR T1 - Semicolonic irrigation JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 551 LP - 551 VL - 56 IS - 528 AU - Neville Goodman Y1 - 2006/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/528/551.2.abstract N2 - The semicolon is misnamed; it is really a semi full-stop. The semicolon is used when two clauses that could be sentences (main clauses) are too closely related to be separated by something as bold as a full stop. (That full stop, unlike the first one, does not need a hyphen.) If you prefer, you can replace the semicolon with a conjunction: ‘The semicolon is misnamed, because it is really a semi full-stop.’ That is weaker, but at least you now know about colons as … ER -