Editing Semicolon (section)

=== French ===
In French, a semicolon (''point-virgule'', literally "dot-comma") is a separation between two full sentences, used where neither a colon nor a comma would be appropriate. The phrase following a semicolon has to be an independent clause, related to the previous one but not explaining it. (When the second clause explains the first one, French consistently uses a [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]].)

The [[dash]] character is used in French writing too, but not as widely as the semicolon. Usage of these devices (semicolon and dash) varies from author to author.