Grammar question: Can I use multiple semicolons in the same sentence?

So, second time’s a charm.

The natural way of writing this is to use ellipsis: “She tried two bowls of porridge: the first was too hot, the second too cold, the third just right.”

With short independent clauses, most writers use commas instead of semicolons:

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Well, these are independent clauses, and a wooden application of the rule would require semicolons here. But no one would write them. Commas after your short clauses probably wouldn’t bother anyone either: they still qualify as “short.”

If you insist, however, on constructing a sentence using semicolons merely to illustrate a point, then, yes, the colon means that everything until the end of the sentence is the explanation of the clause before. The semicolons don’t alter anything.

To answer the question, yes, you can have more than one semicolon, but in such a simple series, the two semicolons merely look pedantic.

As for the serial semicolon, if one uses the two-letter capital state abbreviation rather than a traditional one, i.e., TX instead of Tex., both the US Postal Service and the Chicago Manual of Style (15/16) suggest using no commas between city and state, so the series can be handled by commas only: Dallas TX, Muncie IN, Detroit MI. The Associated Press stylesheet still suggests using traditional abbreviations: Dallas, Tex.; Muncie, Ind.; Detroit, Mich.

There is no limit but I can't imagine a sentence with multiple semicolons being elegant or understandable. In your examples, commas would suffice.

"She tried three bowls of porridge: the first was too hot. the second was too cold, the third was just right."

The clauses are essentially items in a list - hence the colon and commas are grammatically correct.

this is a list rule application. when the items in a list need to be separated by semicolons, then you may use as many semicolons as the list requires.

Typically, I only use a semicolon to split the items when the items are full clauses which MAY contain a comma. Normally, I would use commas in your example. I do not know if this is exactly correct.

There is no need to use semi-colons in your example. Commas do the job very well. The words after "porridge" constitute a simple list, and that's how the comma earns its keep: separating items in a list.

However, there are instances where you would use a semi-colon to separate items in a list: if the items themselves contain commas within them, such as:

I went to five cities last year: Dallas, Tx; New York, NY; Philadelphia, Pa; New Orleans, La and Boston, Ma.

Use a comma after hot. Youve made it a dependent clause by using the semicolon

Technically you can, but your example shows the problem. You can, but you're using redundancy in a boring way. What's wrong with just saying "out of the three bowls of porridge, one was too hot, the other too cold and the third just right"? It beats using "was" three times.

(And you're right. Just because people want to put commas in, doesn't mean that is good grammar.)

I don't think this is good English use a comma

Operating for home is a fantastic deal and not a great deal of people get to do it even if they want this.

I had the same exact question, interesting.