If you don’t have FANBOYS between the two complete and separate thoughts, using a comma alone causes a run-on sentence.
BAD: My hamster loved to play, I gave him a hula-hoop.
BAD: You wore a lovely hat, it was your only defense.
To fix these run-on sentences, you can do one of four simple things:
Add FANBOYS ( For And Nor But Or Yet So). | My hamster loved to play and I gave him a hula-hoop. |
Add a subordinator. (a word like because, while, although, if, when, since, etc.) | You wore a lovely hat since it was your only defense. |
Make each clause a separate sentence. | My hamster loved to play. I gave him a hula-hoop. |
Change the comma to a semicolon. | You wore a lovely hat; it was your only defense. |
Modified from http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/commas.html#5
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