Question

Which sentence uses the semicolon correctly? A. That plant will never make it; it hasn't been watered in months. B. That plant will never make it; lack of water. C. That plant will never make it; hasn't been watered in months.

Answer 1

Answer:

The sentence that uses the semicolon correctly is:

A. That plant will never make it; it hasn't been watered in months.

Explanation:

An independent clause has a subject and a predicate, and it is able to stand alone as a sentence because it conveys a complete thought.

A conjunction is a word used to connect different clauses in order to form one sentence.

When we join two independent clauses without using a conjunction, we should use a semicolon. That is why the first option is correct. The first clause is "That plant will never make it." The second one is "It hasn't been watered in months." We could have created a relationship of subordination between the clauses by adding the conjunction "because" between them. But, since we did not, we must use a semicolon.

That plant will never make it; it hasn't been watered in months.

We can eliminate option B because what comes after the semicolon is simply a fragment, not a clause. Letter C has a problem because the second clause is missing the subject. Thus, a semicolon makes it incorrect. It should be a comma instead.