Fix the Punctuation Crash

One tiny mark can turn two perfectly good thoughts into a punctuation crash. Can you spot the mark that repairs it before the words bump together?

A complete clause can stand as a sentence because it has a subject and a verb, and it makes complete sense. On screen, "Mia laughed" passes both checks: Mia is the subject; laughed is the verb. When one complete clause ends, use a full stop. Use a question mark if it asks directly. Use an exclamation mark only for a strong exclamation. Each mark closes the sentence, so the next one begins with a capital letter. Sometimes two complete clauses are closely linked. A semicolon can join them: "The bell rang; everyone moved." Test each side on its own. If both sides are complete, the join works. A comma alone cannot do that job. Do not grab an apostrophe for this gap. In "it's", the apostrophe replaces the missing letter in "it is". In "Sam's pencil", it shows possession. It does NOT end or join two complete clauses.

Let's work through an example. Choose the punctuation mark that correctly fills the gap in this sentence: "The rain stopped blank we ran outside." Your options are a comma, a semicolon, an apostrophe, or a question mark. First, test the words before the gap. "The rain stopped" has a subject, rain, and a verb, stopped. It makes complete sense. That is one complete clause. Now test the words after the gap. "We ran outside" has the subject we and the verb ran. It also makes complete sense. So we have two complete clauses, side by side. A comma alone would create a faulty join. The apostrophe has no missing letters or possession to show. A question mark would wrongly turn the first statement into a question. The semicolon joins two closely related complete clauses. The answer is SEMICOLON: "The rain stopped; we ran outside."

Find each complete clause, then choose a closing mark or a semicolon that fits the meaning. You can make every sentence boundary clear!