Question

Choose the option that best corrects the sentence at the underlined point:
He first painted the walls of the house, then, he painted the roof.

• A. house; then
• B. house - then
• C. house. Then
• D. NO CHANGE

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

The correct option is C house. Then
The word 'then' is not a conjunction. It is commonly used as an adverb, adjective or noun to denote time.
Even though 'then' is used in many cases as a conjunction, it is not used in formal English, because it does not meet the full criteria for a conjunction: like and, but, or, so.
Option D: In this sentence, 'then' appears to link the clauses, but it cannot connect clauses (in formal English).
Hence, the underlined part is incorrect and must be changed. So, option D is incorrect.
Option A: A semi-colon connects clauses that are independent on their own. But, since 'then' does not function as a conjunction, the semi-colon ';' cannot be used here.
Option B: The em dash '-' is used to separate parts of a sentence. But, as 'then' does not connect these parts, '-' is not correct.
Option C: The full stop '.' is the only thing that corrects the given sentence. It separates them as two different sentences. Hence Option C is correct.