Grade 9 English Language Arts — Punctuating complex sentences

Place the commas, semicolons and periods that a sentence of more than one clause needs.

Name: ________________________

1.Joining two complete sentences with nothing but a comma has a name. Write the two words for it.
2.Which sentence uses the colon correctly?
- a) We needed three things, rope: water and a map.
- b) We: needed three things, rope, water and a map.
- c) We needed: rope, water and a map.
- d) We needed three things: rope, water and a map.
3.Which sentence is punctuated wrongly?
- a) The rain stopped. The match began.
- b) The rain stopped; the match began.
- c) The rain stopped, and the match began.
- d) The rain stopped, the match began.
4.Each card holds two pieces of a sentence, split by a slash. Sort by whether a semicolon could join them.
Groups: Yes — both halves are complete sentences · No — one half cannot stand alone
- The road was closed / we turned back
- She opened the letter / which had come that morning
- She opened the letter / her hands were shaking
- The road was closed / after the landslide
- The sky darkened / the birds fell silent
- The sky darkened / because a storm was coming
5.Sort each sentence by whether its punctuation is correct.
Groups: Correctly punctuated · Wrongly punctuated
- The gate was locked, so we climbed over the wall.
- We waited for an hour, the train never came.
- The gate was locked so, we climbed over the wall.
- Because the road was closed, we took the long way round.
- We waited for an hour; the train never came.
- Because, the road was closed we took the long way round.
6.Put the cards in order to make one correct sentence.
- on the list.
- everything
- the shop was crowded,
- we found
- Although
7.Match each mark to the job it does between clauses.
- a comma
- a semicolon
- a period
- a colon
- a pair of dashes
- introduces a list or an explanation of what came before
- closes off an opening subordinate clause
- throws in an aside, more informally than commas would
- ends one sentence so that the next can begin
- joins two main clauses that are closely related
8.Which mark joins these two closely linked sentences without any joining word? "The library was silent. Nobody had come in all afternoon."
- a) a comma
- b) a hyphen
- c) a semicolon
- d) an apostrophe

Answer key — Grade 9 English Language Arts — Punctuating complex sentences

1. comma splice
2. d) We needed three things: rope, water and a map.
3. d) The rain stopped, the match began.
4. The sky darkened / the birds fell silent → Yes — both halves are complete sentences; The sky darkened / because a storm was coming → No — one half cannot stand alone; She opened the letter / her hands were shaking → Yes — both halves are complete sentences; She opened the letter / which had come that morning → No — one half cannot stand alone; The road was closed / we turned back → Yes — both halves are complete sentences; The road was closed / after the landslide → No — one half cannot stand alone
5. We waited for an hour; the train never came. → Correctly punctuated; We waited for an hour, the train never came. → Wrongly punctuated; Because the road was closed, we took the long way round. → Correctly punctuated; Because, the road was closed we took the long way round. → Wrongly punctuated; The gate was locked, so we climbed over the wall. → Correctly punctuated; The gate was locked so, we climbed over the wall. → Wrongly punctuated
6. 1. Although 2. the shop was crowded, 3. we found 4. everything 5. on the list.
7. a comma → closes off an opening subordinate clause; a semicolon → joins two main clauses that are closely related; a period → ends one sentence so that the next can begin; a colon → introduces a list or an explanation of what came before; a pair of dashes → throws in an aside, more informally than commas would
8. c) a semicolon