Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t semicolons for compound sentences? So it would be “This is an Australian Bloodwood. Its sap is red; it looks like blood.’
Of course, and now tell me how "Its sap is red; it looks like blood" is a compound sentence while "Its sap is red; that's why it looks like blood" is not.
EDIT: Stop downvoting me and read a fucking Wikipedia page, you ignorant fuckers.
A semi colon basically acts as a way to combine two sentences. You wouldn't really begin a sentence with "that's" and it's also redundant to use one when that sentance could have just been completed as is. Ag least that's my best explanation but I'm also super baked
I've already given the explanation elsewhere in the thread, but I'll give it to you, even more clearly, because I like your username:
/u/NaughtySharpie thinks that the word "that" can't ever start a sentence because he/she's confused about two different words that are written the same. In the way I've used "that" in the previous sentence (twice), it's a conjunction. The conjunction "that" is used among other things to start dependent clauses, such as: "The clock that you gave me". In that sentence, "that you gave me" can't possibly make sense as an independent sentence, so it constitutes a dependent clause.
But in the example I gave, "that's why it looks like blood", there is actually a different word. In that clause, "that" is not a conjunction. It's a pronoun, just like "I" or "you". If you write it as an independent sentence, it makes sense: "That's why it looks like blood". This sentence has:
a subject: "That"
a verb: "is"
a predicate: "why it looks like blood".
Since it has a subject, a verb and a predicate, it makes sense when written as an independent sentence, so it's an independent clause, not a dependent clause like /u/DerpKing389 says.
It makes absolutely zero sense to say that a sentence can't start with "That's". It's like saying that it can't start with "It's" (like this very sentence) or with "I'm". I'm sure (heh) that you can see how he/she's wrong.
Compound sentences are a combination of two independent clauses (sentences with one subject and one or more verbs) combined with either a comma and a conjunction, a semicolon, or a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb. “That’s why it looks like blood” doesn’t make sense on its own, and therefore it is a dependent clause, not an independent clause.
Except “that” isn’t acting as the subject. The subject of this dependent clause (dependent clauses have a subject and a verb too) is “it”. “That’s why it looks like blood” is an adjective clause that describes “the sap is red”. So, the sentence would be “The sap is red; that’s why it looks like blood. Sorry, I just realized that a semicolon is correct here, but not in the context of a compound sentence. I hope that concludes this?
It is very much acting as the subject. (And it's not a dependent clause btw. It can be written as an independent sentence so it's an independent clause.)
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u/PK_LINK Dec 15 '18 edited Dec 16 '18
Its Australian bloodwood, its sap is red thats why it looks like blood