Answer:
mouth; (semicolon)
Explanation:
Identifying Clauses
To answer this question, we need to start by identifying the clauses in the given sentence.
Our two clauses are:
1. My dog ran up to me with the big carrot in her mouth
2. I don't even know where she found it
We need to identify if these clauses are independent clauses or dependent clauses.
Let's start with the first one.
"My dog ran up to me with the big carrot in her mouth"
An independent clause is one that can stand alone in a sentence, meaning that it is a complete thought. In most instances, this means it has a subject and a verb (unless it is a command) On the other hand, a dependent clause is one that can't.
This would be a grammatically correct sentence on its own, so it is an independent clause.
The second one: "I don't even know where she found it" is also an independent clause.
Even though "it" may be slightly unclear, the sentence still has a subject, verb, and expresses a complete thought. Therefore, this clause would also be independent.
How can we connect clauses?
There are many ways we can connect clauses.
When we have two independent clauses, like we do above, we must use a semicolon, period, exclamation mark, or question mark (when applicable).
If we would like to use a comma, we need to add a conjunction.
Joining the clauses without a conjunction would be a comma splice.
You can memorize the conjunctions with the acronym FANBOYS.
They are as follows: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
You would put this in front of the second clause, so it would look like:
My dog ran up to me with the big carrot in her mouth, but I don't even know where she found it.
This essentially makes the second clause an incomplete thought, so it is a dependent clause.
You can also make the first clause dependent by adding a subordinating conjunction.
Some examples are: while, as if, although, after, as, because, before, etc.
In conclusion, since we have two independent clauses with no conjunctions, we must use a semicolon.
Learn more about clauses and punctuation in these related links:
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