Which list of places requires semicolons instead of commas?
A: Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
B: Sacramento, California, Denver, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona and Santa Fe, New mexico.
C: North dakota, south dakota, north Carolina, south Carolina and west Virginia.
D: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia
B: Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The list of places that requires semicolons instead of commas is:
C: North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
The correct answer is D: Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia.
When listing places or items in a sentence, the general rule is to use commas between each item. However, there are cases where semicolons are necessary instead of commas.
One such case is when the items in the list already contain commas within them. For example, in option B, "Sacramento, California" and "Santa Fe, New Mexico" already have commas. If we use commas to separate all the items, it becomes confusing and difficult to distinguish between the separate items in the list.
To improve clarity and maintain proper punctuation, we use semicolons instead. In option D, each country in the list (Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, etc.) does not have commas within them or require additional punctuation. Therefore, we can use semicolons to clearly separate each country in the list.
The correct format for the list in option D is: Brazil; Venezuela; Colombia; Ecuador; Chile; Argentina; Peru; and Bolivia.