Comma or semicolon?

Question

My mom says that somehow being the first born; all of my features from physical to personality make me my dad’s younger and female counterpart.

OR

My mom says that somehow being the first born, all of my features from physical to personality make me my dad’s younger and female counterpart.

I'm confused because Word says it needs to be a semicolon but I think a comma might work too, so what do you think?

Thanks for all the answers! Oh and don't mind the sentence itself. It's for a college admissions essay.

Answer 1

Soxchick is correct. The use of a semicolon is to separate two complete thoughts in a sentence. Example: I called all of my friends; we all met at the beach later.

The use of a comma in a sentence would be like the following. "It had continued to rain, even though it was sunny." You may place "even though it was sunny" BEFORE the" It had continued..." it would still be the same idea, but "even though it was sunny..." does not stand alone as a sentence by itself.

My curiousity is that your own sentence is a bit confusing to me. Perhaps rewording it might sound better such as...

"Because of my physical appearance [resemblance?] and personality, my mother says that I could be mistaken for my father's sister." [or a twin?] That is a bit more pleasing to the ear or understanding, when reading your statement.

[< there is that comma usage again. Understand that sentence and put "when reading..." in front of "That is..." See what I mean?]

But, I don't understand why you being born 1st would matter anyway. Best wishes!

Answer 2

A comma and not the semicolon is correct, period. But that's not all, really. The alternatives are:

1. You can leave out the comma.

2. There should also be a comma after "My mom says that" because putting a comma after "first born" has made "somehow being the first born" a parenthetic participial adjective phrase which it really is.

Moreover, the adjective phrase "somehow being the first born" as it stands is hanging precariously ("a dangling participle") in the sentence without the noun (which is you) it is supposed to modify. It should be followed then by the noun, thus:

My mom says that, somehow being the first born, I have physical features and personality similar to those of my father.

Answer 3

Your wording is odd; that's what is confusing Word.
Your sentence has two finite (conjugated) verbs, says and make, and no conjunction nor relative pronoun, so normally you should have a semi-colon. (like my sentence above--it has "is" and then " 's" (another "is" really)--plus "what" which accounts for the third "is"--two finite verbs, no ifs ands or buts, so a semi-colon)

Now to me your present participle "being the first born" is dangling--it seems like what is "being the first born" is "all of my features" but that doesn't make sense. Better to subordinate the whole clause, for example with a "because", like this:

My mom says that somehow because I'm the first born, all of my features from physical to personality make me my dad's younger and female counterpart.

(I still don't get what your mom's on about, but YOUR sentence makes sense.)

Answer 4

its definitely not a semicolon, i would use a comma. you should only use a semicolon if both parts before it could function as its own sentence. "me mom says that somehow being the first born" could not be its own sentence, and therefore you should use a comma

Answer 5

Go for the comma. A semi-colon is like a car crash in that sentence.

Answer 6

Comma. A semicolon is a colons bastard son.

Answer 7

Definitely comma - Microsoft is frequently wrong on many issues.

Anything that tries to get me to spell "realise" with a Z I'm going to take umbridge with.

Answer 8

comma. Word always tries to enter wierd semi-colons, but most of the time, they aren't correct.

Answer 9

comma, you only need semi colon when you have a separate idea but dont need to start a new sentnce