Question

which sentence correctly uses a semicolon?
a. the doors to the hallway were closed; which meant that the students were delayed getting to their next class.
b. because he asked his sister to let the dog in earlier, joel was surprised when he came home and the dog was still outside.
c. sarah asked me to fold the clothes in the laundry room; nevertheless, all of the clothes were folded and stacked neatly on the shelf.
d. as i was walking out of the door to go to the store, they asked me to get apples; pears; oranges; bananas.

Explanation:

• Option A: A semicolon should connect two independent clauses. Here, “which meant that the students were delayed getting to their next class” is a dependent clause, so the semicolon usage is incorrect.
• Option B: “Because he asked his sister to let the dog in earlier” is a dependent clause. A semicolon cannot be used to separate a dependent and an independent clause in this way.
• Option C: “Sarah asked me to fold the clothes in the laundry room” (independent clause) and “nevertheless, all of the clothes were folded and stacked neatly on the shelf” (independent clause with a conjunctive adverb “nevertheless”) are correctly joined by a semicolon.
• Option D: Semicolons are not used to separate items in a simple list like “apples; pears; oranges; bananas” when commas would suffice.

Answer:

C. Sarah asked me to fold the clothes in the laundry room; nevertheless, all of the clothes were folded and stacked neatly on the shelf.