<p>To add to the confusion, every New Year's Day a person according to this Korean counting system, becomes a year older, regardless of his or her actual birthday. </p>
<p>*the word "person" is underlined.</p>
<p>A. NO CHANGE
B. person,
C. person;
D. person who,</p>
<hr>
<p>So the answer is apparently C., but I don't see why. I picked D because it sounded more natural to me... Can someone explain why it's C.? I mean, why not B.? I mean B. & C. are similar only different punctuation. Is a semi-colon really that important? Can someone just explain to me why the other answer options are wrong, and why C. is right? </p>
<p>I'm using a book but it doesn't show the answers for this one :(</p>
<p>Why do you think the answer is C?</p>
<p>I believe the answer is B. I will try to explain why. (I am not an English professor, though I am a professor).</p>
<p>A semi-colon is used to separate a sentence that is made up of two related independent clauses. That is, each part needs to be able to stand as a complete sentence on its own. Here if a semi-colon were used it would separate the subject (“a person”) from the verb (“becomes”), which is not acceptable punctuation. (Semi-colons can also be used in place of commas to separate long or complex items in a list, but that is not what is going on here.)</p>
<p>A comma is used to set off a dependent clause (“according to this Korean counting system”) at the beginning an at the end. The bare bones of the sentence are: “every New Year’s Day a person becomes a year older.” All the other phrases are dependent clauses and need to be set off with commas.</p>
<p>Option D would make the sentence a fragment. The subject in the sentence is now a clause: “a person who becomes a year older…” But no verb follows this subject, so it is a sentence fragment. </p>
<p>I am not sure I am explaining clearly, but I hope it helps.</p>