The semi-colon

Liveinjapan wrote:

Hi everyone. Can I replace the semi-colon by a comma  in the following setence? Can I do by a period? Hundreds of people cross the border from the US to Canada every day; therefore, it is not possible to search all of them carefully.

Can I replace the semi-colon by a comma  in the following sentence?

A comma cannot be used.  A period can be used.

A comma cannot be used because  Hundreds of people cross the border from the US to Canada every day is by itself a sentence.

I hope this helps.

Hi LiJ

That is generally true, but because your sentence uses the word 'therefore' there isn't really much difference. The word 'therefore' makes a strong connection itself.  What bothers me a little bit about your sentence is the clutter of punctuation around the word 'therefore'.

Yankee wrote:

Hi LiJ That is generally true, but because your sentence uses the word 'therefore' there isn't really much difference. The word 'therefore' makes a strong connection itself.  What bothers me a little bit about your sentence is the clutter of punctuation around the word 'therefore'.

Do you mean you'd avoid using a semi-colon there, and use a period?