Semicolons are at risk of dying out; do YOU know how to use one? 

The age-old semicolon is dying out as Britons admit to never or rarely using the punctuation mark.

In English-written 19th century literature it appeared once in every 205 words, but today it is down to one in every 390 words.

The survey found that 67 per cent of British students never or rarely used a semicolon and only 11 per cent of respondents described themselves as frequent users.

While more than half of respondents did not know or understand how to use the punctuation mark correctly.

A semicolons use is to connect two parts of a sentence where a conjunction is omitted, such as 'The cat sat on the mat; the mice watched from behind the sofa'.