ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Independent Clauses. It's only a matter

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of time before Kelly Clarkson writes a song about them.

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I am going home I intend to stay there.

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Notice how "I am going home" and "I intend to stay there" could both stand alone as sentences.

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That clues us in to the fact that they're both independent clauses. Kinda like this guy.

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It's looking like another independent clause

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love story. These things always have a way of getting together when they're not supposed to.

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Ever read Romeo and Juliet? We're going to play the role of Friar Lawrence and get these

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two together, although hopefully this story won't end in death.

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Alright. Well, we know that there are a few ways we could join these two sentences.

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The first and easiest way is to just plop down a period. This brings a pause between

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the two sentences, and if the sentences are separate and unrelated, this method makes

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the most sense. But in this case, these clauses are pretty

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clearly related. If we check the answer choices, only one of the options separates the sentence

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using a period. If we plug that into the sentence, we end

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up with "I am going home I intend. to stay there."

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The period is placed in the wrong spot, so it just sounds as if the speaker is having

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breathing problems Another way we could combine the two clauses

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is with a comma and a conjunction.

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We can't have a comma by itself, because that would be a comma splice, but we can use it

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with a conjunction, like and.

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Unfortunately, option C doesn't work out because it uses the comma without a nice conjunction,

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forming that annoying comma splice. The final, and least common way is with a

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semicolon. Semicolons are just like periods, only they show that the clauses are closely

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related. Option B utilizes a semicolon nicely, and

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puts it in the right place. But for every right answer, there are three wrong answers,

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so let's make sure the original sentence doesn't work as is before we decide to put all our

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eggs in B's basket. Well, there's not really anything in between

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the two clauses. No period, comma, conjunction, or semicolon.

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Which means it has to be wrong; you can't just throw the two clauses together.

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Option B is the way to go. So happy we could help out a couple of star-crossed lovers.

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