human
I'm a little confused about the difference between a comma and a semicolon. Can you explain them to me?
assistant
A comma is used to separate independent clauses in a sentence, while a semicolon is used to join two closely related independent clauses. For example: "I went to the store; I bought some food." In this case, the first clause is an independent clause because it can stand alone as a complete thought, while the second clause is dependent on the first one.