<p>I have looked at this sentence for several minutes and cannot figure out if it is grammatically correct. Can someone help me? BTW, I don't want it changed into two sentences.</p>
<p>"Santiago goes forty days with Manolin in his boat and then loses him which is similar to Christ in the desert for forty days."</p>
<p>Should I have a comma or semicolon between "him" and "which", or should I leave it as it is?</p>
<p>That is a MESSY sentence.</p>
<p>Huh??? The second part of your sentence really doesn't make sense. Is this something you wrote, or are you doing a grammar exercise on it? If it's something you wrote, it doesn't make sense....fix it. If it's a grammar exercise, then I think you want a comma after "him"....</p>
<p>You are safe almost always putting a comma before 'which' in a sentence. A semicolon is not appropriate. But you may want to clarify the comparison you are making within the sentence itself.</p>
<p>You definitely need a comma before the "which." Some of your phrasing is also weird. I think it would be clearer if you rewrote it:</p>
<p>Santiago travels for forty days with Manolin in his boat and then loses him; this is similar to Christ, who spends forty days in the desert.</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly with Demeter. The second part of your sentence is VERY awkward, but can be easily be corrected (like Demeter did)</p>
<p>I also think you can get rid of "in his boat", unless it adds significantly to the sentence in its context.</p>
<p>Santiago travels for forty days with Manolin in his boat and then loses him; this situation is similar to Christ, who spends forty days in the desert.</p>
<p>You should never write this/that/these/those unless you put a noun right after it. It's not grammatically incorrect to not do so, but it makes the sentence much clearer.</p>
<p>For the correction noted above this post, change Christ to Christ's to indicate that the situation itself is not similar to Christ, but rather to his situation.</p>
<p>Good looking out.</p>
<p>Santiago travels with Manolin for forty days before losing him, similar to Christ's experience in the desert.</p>
<p>I think this sentence is better as 2 sentences with a transition.</p>
<p>Any sentence that brings so much question that you have to ask CCers if it's a cohesive sentence will usually bring in a resounding "hell naw" response :P</p>
<p>looks like you need a few commas, maybe a sentence in between so it makes more sense... let's see, what else...</p>
<p>Oh yeah. It needs a point.</p>
<p>try this:
"Santiago goes forty days in his boat with Manolin before losing him; similarly, Christ spent forty days in the desert."</p>
<p>or, if you do not want a semicolon:
"Santiago goes forty days in his boat with Manolin before losing him, which is similar to how Christ spent forty days in the desert."</p>
<p>The grammatical rule that first comes up concerns dependent clauses following independent clauses. "Santiago...him" is independent, "which...days" is dependent. If you have IC then DC, you do not need a comma. Consider the sentence "I like to jump because it is fun." However, you may always use a comma if it clears up confusion, and this is a case in which it does. I would use a comma. A semicolon would imply that "which...days" is its own IC, its own complete thought, so that's not what you're looking for.</p>
<p>I've go to say though, I like Adelaide's reword #1. I'd go with that.</p>
<p>Oh snap, kcarls shut you down.
I say you rework the whole entire sentence. I don't see the point of keeping it the way it is if no one can understand it. Use the semicolon and then this situation one. That one was clear, I think.</p>