Use of semi-colon

[PrashantS209]

I was reading this in the current issue of The Economist (https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/03/ ... ty-at-home):

Barely a week later, not only have 210m Pakistanis been largely confined to their homes; on March 24th next-door India shut in all 1.3bn of its citizens, too.
Would this be a correct use of semi-colon in GMAT? I thought a semicolon should connect two independent sentences on either side. In the first sentence there is “NOT ONLY” but not “BUT” or “BUT ALSO”.


I am trying to improve my SC by reading The Economist and see how the issues I learned in the Interact is applied there. Please let me know if it is not appropriate to post such questions here in this forum.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Interesting find! I agree with you that the use of the semi-colon in this sentence doesn't agree with GMAT rules (or simply rules for standard English usage). As you say, the part of the sentence before the semi-colon needs a "...but also..." to make it a complete sentence. Frankly, this looks like an editorial oversight on the part of The Economist.

It's good that you're reading The Economist to help improve your English skills. However, be aware that the standards of sentence clarity and grammar for Sentence Correction are higher than those followed in many reputable written sources. Sentence Correction is very picky about how sentences are constructed, so be aware that not all written English is to the same high level. It's still useful to read publications such as The Economist, and it's good to train your eye to notice occasional inconsistencies such as the one you found above. Here's another: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/ ... ore-london

[PrashantS209]

many thanks Sage.

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

You're welcome.