Semicolon and "Hence"

Question

Hi,In MS Word, the grammar checker always prompts for a semi-colon for the following sentence:We can see that this will indeed be possible,(;) hence I strongly believe you should give it a try.Could someone please explain why?Regards,Michael

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Michael wrote on 16 Oct 2004:
[nq:1]Hi, In MS Word, the grammar checker always prompts for a semi-colon for the following sentence: We can see that this will indeed be possible,(;) hence I strongly believe you should give it a try. Could someone please explain why?[/nq]
"hence" is a synonym of "therefore". They are used the same way: semi- colon before and comma after. The grammar checker is correct to ask you for that semi-colon. It should read:
"We can see that this will indeed be possible; hence, I strongly believe you should give it a try."

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

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[nq:1]Subject: Re: Semicolon and "Hence" From: CyberCypher Michael wrote on 16 Oct 2004:[/nq]
[nq:2]Hi, In MS Word, the grammar checker always prompts for ... should give it a try. Could someone please explain why?[/nq]
[nq:1]"hence" is a synonym of "therefore". They are used the same way: semi- colon before and comma after. The grammar ... read: "We can see that this will indeed be possible; hence, I strongly believe you should give it a try."[/nq]
Agreed: certain words do require a semicolon before them, because they trigger what is in effect a new sentence form.
"Hence" is a word I never use, though, because it sounds stitled and old fashioned to me.
Peasemarch.

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[nq:2]Subject: Re: Semicolon and "Hence" From: CyberCypher Michael wrote on ... hence, I strongly believe you should give it a try."[/nq]
[nq:1]Agreed: certain words do require a semicolon before them, because they trigger what is in effect a new sentence form. "Hence" is a word I never use, though, because it sounds stitled and old fashioned to me.[/nq]
How do you feel about "Prithee"?

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Qp10qp wrote on 16 Oct 2004:
[nq:2]Subject: Re: Semicolon and "Hence" From: CyberCypher Michael wrote on ... hence, I strongly believe you should give it a try."[/nq]
[nq:1]Agreed: certain words do require a semicolon before them, because they trigger what is in effect a new sentence form. "Hence" is a word I never use, though, because it sounds stitled and old fashioned to me.[/nq]
I agree, although it is still in fashion in medical articles.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

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With "hence", "therefore" etc. does a semicolon always precede and a comma always follow?
For the sentence:
We can see that this will indeed be possible, hence I believe.

No warning is given, why's that?
Michael

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]With "hence", "therefore" etc. does a semicolon always precede and a comma always follow? For the sentence: We can see that this will indeed be possible, hence I believe. No warning is given, why's that?[/nq]
Warranted would be a warning that this is an ugly, ambiguous sentence. It this an inversion of
"Hence I believe (that) we can see that this will indeed be possible" or is it a mispunctuation of
"We can see that this will indeed be possible; hence, I believe."

The first seems more likely. You example sentence is unwieldy; hence, I believe it should be rewritten.

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Michael wrote on 16 Oct 2004:
[nq:2]Michael wrote on 16 Oct 2004: "hence" is a synonym ... hence, I strongly believe you should give it a try."[/nq]
[nq:1]With "hence", "therefore" etc. does a semicolon always precede and a comma always follow?[/nq]
There are grammar rules and there are style decisions. Accomplished writers don't always follow the codified rules of grammar. Here is a snippet of a sentence (taken from W3NID) from an accomplished writer that uses neither the semi-colon nor the comma:
3 : because of a preceding fact or premise : THEREFORE unorthodoxand hence unpopular doctrines J.B.Conant
Of course, in this sentence, "hence" is not used as a conjunctive adverb but as a parenthetical remark. Not using commas or parentheses to isolate it from the rest of the sentence is a stylistic choice. It's difficult to find anything about language that is true when the word "always" or "never" is in the sentence.
I would always I can't think of an instance when I wouldn't, but one might arise in the future use a preceding semi-colon and following comma with "hence" or "therefore" when they are used as conjunctive adverbs.
[nq:1]For the sentence: We can see that this will indeed be possible, hence I believe. No warning is given, why's that?[/nq]
I don't understand what you mean by "warning". Maybe someone else here does.
This sentence is also unacceptable to me because it seems ambiguous: I don't know whether "hence" means "therefore" or "in the future".

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Michael wrote on 16 Oct 2004:[/nq]
[nq:2]For the sentence: We can see that this will indeed be possible, hence I believe. No warning is given, why's that?[/nq]
[nq:1]I don't understand what you mean by "warning". Maybe someone else here does.[/nq]
He is talking about MS Word's grammar checker warning (or advice).
[nq:1]This sentence is also unacceptable to me because it seems ambiguous: I don't know whether "hence" means "therefore" or "in the future".[/nq]
The "in the future" meaning does not come to my mind for this sentence construction (it's labeled as archaic in MWCD). Perhaps it will again, hence.

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

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[nq:2]"Hence" is a word I never use, though, because it sounds stitled and old fashioned to me.[/nq]
[nq:1]I agree, although it is still in fashion in medical articles.[/nq]
The same is true in mathematics.

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I didn't even know such a meaning existed. "Henceforward" is OK, though.

Rob Bannister

Semicolon and "Hence"

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