Question

which sentence uses a comma to create a compound sentence? select the best answer.

david could follow in his fathers footsteps, or he could follow his own career path. he dreamed of joining a band, or starting his own theater company. he could move to new york and audition or, he could take a summer job at his fathers company.

answer

click on a word or word group to make a selection. to undo, click on the selection again. alternatively use the tab and spacebar to select or deselect the word or word group.

david could follow in his fathers footsteps, or he could follow his own career path. he dreamed of joining a band, or starting his own theater company. he could move to new york and audition or, he could take a summer job at his fathers company.

Explanation:

🆕 New Concept Discovered: Compound Sentences and Coordinating Conjunctions
Connecting two complete thoughts with a comma and a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).

Step 1: Understand compound sentences

A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses (complete thoughts that can stand alone as sentences) joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So).

To identify the correct sentence, we must look for a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction where both the preceding and following parts are complete sentences.

Step 2: Analyze the first sentence

• Sentence: "David could follow in his father's footsteps, or he could follow his own career path."
• Clause 1: "David could follow in his father's footsteps" (Independent clause - complete thought)
• Conjunction: ", or"
• Clause 2: "he could follow his own career path" (Independent clause - complete thought)
• Result: This is a correctly structured compound sentence.

Step 3: Analyze the second sentence

• Sentence: "He dreamed of joining a band, or starting his own theater company."
• Clause 1: "He dreamed of joining a band" (Independent clause)
• Conjunction: ", or"
• Part 2: "starting his own theater company" (Dependent phrase - lacks a subject and cannot stand alone as a sentence)
• Result: This is a single sentence with a compound predicate (incorrectly separated by a comma), not a compound sentence.

Step 4: Analyze the third sentence

• Sentence: "He could move to New York and audition or, he could take a summer job at his father's company."
• Analysis: The comma is placed incorrectly after the conjunction "or" rather than before it ("audition, or he could..."). This does not follow standard compound sentence punctuation rules.

Answer:

David could follow in his father's footsteps, or he could follow his own career path.