A panicked college student is emailing their professor about a missing assignment. Select ALL the sentences that correctly use contrast words to excuse the delay.

The correct answers are:

  • I finished the essay on time; however, my dog literally ate my laptop.
  • Though I finished the essay on time, my dog literally ate my laptop.
  • I finished the essay on time. My dog literally ate my laptop, though.

However is used with a semicolon (or a period) and a comma to link two independent ideas.

Though can act as a subordinating conjunction at the beginning of the clause (just like "although") AND as an adverb at the end of a sentence.

"Although" cannot be followed immediately by a comma to start a new sentence (that creates a sentence fragment), and "however" cannot be squeezed between two commas to join two full sentences (that creates a comma splice).

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