“I looked at you” and “You looked back” are two Independent Clauses so they are joined by a Semicolon. Semicolons never connect Dependent Clauses. “Looking at you” is a Dependent Clause where “I sighed” is an Independent one so there must be a Comma linking them and not a Semicolon when it comes to punctuation marks. When two complete sentences are to be joined, it always needs a Semicolon, not a Comma. Commas probe the readers to pause very briefly, which is barely noticeable, but with a Semicolon, they have to pause a bit longer than a Comma but shorter than a Full Stop. But for the English learners dealing with these punctuations for the first time, it can be pretty daunting. There is no reason why it should be confusing whether to use a Comma or a Semicolon in a particular situation. She folded bedsheets, work clothes and the towel ( ) her husband did the laundry, washed the dishes and mowed the lawn.Reese, the drive Paula, the nanny ( ) Dave, the chef and Jackson, the dog accompanied us.Both the lists have commas separating each ingredient within so separating the two Independent Clauses requires a Semicolon. There are two lists in the sentence above - “rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil and eggs” and “parsley, mint and basil”. I already have rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil and eggs at home ( ) let’s get some parsley, mint and basil.The theory is when components inside a list are already divided by commas and need further divisions, that is when the Semicolon comes into play. Lists inside lists or serial lists are separated with it. Secondly, Semicolons come in handy while listing something. I’ve been riding this bus every day for the past month ( ) I should have seen him somewhere.They’re back on the road ( ) it’s the holiday season.That is the all-important logical connection that justifies the usage of the Semicolon. “We’ll be at the park tomorrow” and “Wednesdays are pretty quiet there” are both Independent Sentences and they have a logical connection since both mention the same day in two ways - “Tomorrow” and “Wednesday”.
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