I’m a US native speaker and that semicolon is weird. Most people couldn’t fully tell you the rules around semicolon use and often use it wrong in various ways (iirc it’s mostly supposed to be used with two full grammatically complete sentences that you could use something else between them but they’re connected in some way so the semicolon is used to indicate that, it’s rare). But the semicolon in the meme is weird in ways I can’t put my finger on - the sentence fragments are a common enough thing that it doesn’t flag as wrong to me, but there’s more than that. Why not use a colon (:), if this is maybe the first of a list in a kids book or something?
American English is different from British English. I’m firmly of the opinion though that anyone that spells the word ‘tire’ with a Y is doing English wrong.
If we were to go off its basic function of separating two individual sentences that can stand on their own but are somewhat related to one another that you could combine them with a semicolon, then it’s just plain wrong use. “Cowboys must” is not a full sentence. A colon would make a lot more sense but even then - if it’s just one item you’re listing, why even bother introducing a list with a colon?
I’m not sure I was clear with that point - it is wrong due to the sentence fragments, but my native-English-speaker Spidey senses tell me there’s something else wrong with it too, but I don’t know what.
I’m not sure it’s the only piece of the list though, this is an out of context picture and my first guess is it’s from a children’s book and the next pages list out more things. I could be completely wrong on that guess but I came to these comments looking for context, nobody has provided it yet, and I don’t care enough to find out, lol. Edit: not a children’s book with that font. I don’t know and I’m slightly buzzed because I’m off tomorrow and had a beer, sorry.
This semicolon is throwing me off hard. Is this an ESL thing or is it unnecessary here?
It’s not unnecessary here, it’s just wrong.
Anyway, there is only one correct way to use the semicolon and it’s like this: ;)
I’m a US native speaker and that semicolon is weird. Most people couldn’t fully tell you the rules around semicolon use and often use it wrong in various ways (iirc it’s mostly supposed to be used with two full grammatically complete sentences that you could use something else between them but they’re connected in some way so the semicolon is used to indicate that, it’s rare). But the semicolon in the meme is weird in ways I can’t put my finger on - the sentence fragments are a common enough thing that it doesn’t flag as wrong to me, but there’s more than that. Why not use a colon (:), if this is maybe the first of a list in a kids book or something?
so, native english. Unless you mean an indigenous language?
American English is different from British English. I’m firmly of the opinion though that anyone that spells the word ‘tire’ with a Y is doing English wrong.
So … what do you think the “Engl” in “English” comes from?
Anglish.
does american english have different punctuation grammar and rules? like the usage of semi colons?
Yes, Brits call periods “full stops” and quotation makes “inverted commas”. So, complete insanity.
… do periods or full stops function differently? or are they just different names for the same thing?
inverted commas is an “older” phrasing to me, i havent heard that since school years ago
(Im british).
Do you call jokes something else there too?
There’s some slight variations and they’re inconsistent. That’s what makes them exciting.
If we were to go off its basic function of separating two individual sentences that can stand on their own but are somewhat related to one another that you could combine them with a semicolon, then it’s just plain wrong use. “Cowboys must” is not a full sentence. A colon would make a lot more sense but even then - if it’s just one item you’re listing, why even bother introducing a list with a colon?
I’m not sure I was clear with that point - it is wrong due to the sentence fragments, but my native-English-speaker Spidey senses tell me there’s something else wrong with it too, but I don’t know what.
I’m not sure it’s the only piece of the list though, this is an out of context picture and my first guess is it’s from a children’s book and the next pages list out more things. I could be completely wrong on that guess but I came to these comments looking for context, nobody has provided it yet, and I don’t care enough to find out, lol. Edit: not a children’s book with that font. I don’t know and I’m slightly buzzed because I’m off tomorrow and had a beer, sorry.