When to use a semicolon vs comma?

Hi,

I somehow never learned proper punctuation at school and I am a bit confused as to when to use commas vs semicolons. I feel like a total idiot when writing sometimes. For example, in this sentence:

Artificial intelligence can provide accurate medical diagnoses, intelligently guess what products consumers want to buy, find the optimum number of taxis that a city needs and predict the quantity of ingredients a restaurant needs to order to minimise waste, but not to run out of stock.

Does it require a semicolon during the list or is a comma okay? When do you use a semicolon?

Thanks and sorry for being such a dweeb 😅

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Reply 1

Wolfbangenoff

Hey

Please do not feel like a clown, etc. Mine is worse than yours it does not makes us idiots/clowns/donkeys etc.
As long as you get you point across, no big deal.

When i'm serious, making reports to DWP, police, untaxed vehicles, complaining re clowns/politicians,
I use Grammerly.

Thanks

Reply 2

PizzaSlice

Original post by Wolfbangenoff

Will give it a go thanks. I've been pulled up over it a couple of times and it now makes me anxious to submit anything.

Reply 3

ifreakingloveme

Original post by PizzaSlice

add a comma before the and, and you're good to go <3

Reply 4

Wolfbangenoff

Original post by PizzaSlice

Will give it a go thanks. I've been pulled up over it a couple of times and it now makes me anxious to submit anything.

Grammarly is v good IMHO. Does the trick
I made several complaints against a manager via councillors a few months ago.
The funny thing is that during a team meeting the senior manager was very angry
that someone had been reporting them to councillors and shed read the complaints, emails
and it was from a 'highly educated person' he said. I tried not to burst out LOL :biggrin:

The rest of the team had a good ROFL afterwards and to this day wonder who it was.

My best friend at work thought it was me, but it was said in jest as he added "you can't string two words together."

The manager I complained against for not efficiently using the budget I was told wanted to trace the IP
as I had emailed the personnel as well, lol. However, he was advised 'no can do as it was not a criminal or libellous act."
LOL

Bottom line it did the trick that man and his lackys never found out who it was and money
is used more effectively

Reply 5

Wolfbangenoff

Original post by ifreakingloveme

add a comma before the and, and you're good to go <3

I disagree as a comma is not required around the 'and'

Reply 6

ifreakingloveme

Original post by Wolfbangenoff

I disagree as a comma is not required around the 'and'

A comma is required.

I use grammarly/pro-writing aid when proof-reading my novels, and most times, they bring out only the obvious errors. The uses of artificial intelligence are listed in the above context, therefore a comma is needed before the and.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

ifreakingloveme

y'know what I just realized? it's most common in America than other English speaking countries of the world, so the comma is optional.

but hey, you do know that
I had orange juice, toast, and ham and eggs for breakfast is completely different from I had orange juice, toast, ham, and eggs for breakfast,
right?

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 8

vapordave

Debate & Current Affairs Helper

Original post by ifreakingloveme

It's not. I use it but it's a stylistic choice.

Reply 9

Tolgash

Original post by ifreakingloveme

The inclusion of the serial comma is a stylistic choice. It is not required.

I understand the meaning of both lists. I see no ambiguity. I consider 'ham and eggs' to be one item because it's obvious that your list isn't a polysyndeton, so I wouldn't be confused without the serial comma. I can treat 'ham' and 'eggs' as two separate items without the serial comma in the second list as well.

Also, you can just change the order of the list in some cases.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 10

simonmorrish

Your sentence as you've written it is fine. You could add a comma before the 'and' as suggested, but it's not necessary. However, it's quite a long sentence, and it uses commas not only to delimit your list but also at the end to separate phrases; this could arguably cause confusion. So an alternative would be to use commas for your list, as follows:

Artificial intelligence can: provide accurate medical diagnoses; intelligently guess what products consumers want to buy; find the optimum number of taxis that a city needs; and predict the quantity of ingredients a restaurant needs to order to minimise waste, but not to run out of stock.

Reply 11

Wolfbangenoff

Original post by ifreakingloveme

I disagree.

Reply 12

ifreakingloveme

Original post by Tolgash

The inclusion of the serial comma is a stylistic choice. It is not required.

In my opinion, I understand the meaning of both lists. I see no ambiguity. I consider 'ham and eggs' to be one item because it's obvious that your list isn't a polysyndeton, so I wouldn't be confused without the serial comma. I can treat 'ham' and 'eggs' as two separate items without the serial comma in the second list as well.

Also, you can just change the order of the list in some cases.

damn, I knew someone was going to call me out on the ham, egg thingy lol. but you do understand what I mean, right? like how the serial comma is more common in American English than British English. I should've made my statement clearer enough, though. my bad.

Reply 13

ifreakingloveme

Original post by Wolfbangenoff

I disagree.

I had a feeling you were going to disagree regardless, so I made it clear that the comma is more common in American English. it's optional, I said this too.

Reply 14

Tolgash

Original post by ifreakingloveme

I agree with that. You'll also probably see Oxonians use it a lot because of its alternative name. :wink:

Reply 15

Wolfbangenoff

Original post by ifreakingloveme

I had a feeling you were going to disagree regardless, so I made it clear that the comma is more common in American English. it's optional, I said this too.

Please stop trying to cover yourself as you NEVER did state that in the post I referenced and that is a fact. I read a post at a time and respond.

You remind me of someone that works in my office, ie always saying something as 'fact' then adding to it.

Reply 16

ifreakingloveme

Original post by Wolfbangenoff

dude, wtf?? I legit responded twice! how did the others see it, then? and please, do not compare me with some stranger at your place of work.

p.s: I decided to add the second post when I realized that a lot of you on here aren't Americans. I'm not trying to cover up some stupid fact. omg, so annoying ಠ_ಠ

Reply 17

Wolfbangenoff

Original post by ifreakingloveme

My fellow member on TSR

For the official record chump, I am not you "dude" ok!!!

"WTF" trust me dear, I can easily better that but it is not my style.

Just because I pointed out what you did and you know you did does not mean you are a failure. This is a forum, it is not a one in a trillion job interview, etc.

FYI dear, I never stated you'd tried to "cover up" anyhting that is another fact!!

Chill out dear as real life is hard as it's not chatting rubbish on forum and always being right

I was right, you are wrong, whats the big deal!! I guess the difference between you and me is that I seek perfection and note when I'm wrong but you wrongly assume you are perfect.

HTH

Reply 18

ifreakingloveme

Original post by Wolfbangenoff

you know what's upsetting? the fact that you said I tried to cover up my mistake. the other members notified me about the serial comma being optional, and I explained what I had originally meant to them.

I know enough about real life being hard, so i'm not even going to take that statement to heart.

FYI, you're clearly the only one who doesn't want to learn from her mistake. I don't see anything wrong in what I said about American English being different from British English. others agreed with me, but you clearly don't want to. it's fine.

I probably offended you with my wtf and dude, but that's not sth to take personally. I say that to everyone, male or female. anyway, I'm apologizing. not bc I think I did anything wrong, but bc this argument doesn't even make sense.