human
I'm a little confused about the difference between a comma and a semicolon. Can you explain?
assistant
A comma is used to separate independent clauses in a sentence, while a semicolon can be used to join two closely related independent clauses. For example, "The cat sat on the mat; it was wet." In this case, both of the clauses are independent and separated by a comma. On the other hand, if I say, "The cat sat on the mat; it was wet, so it left," then the second clause is dependent upon the first one. This would require a semicolon to connect them.