Run on sentence

Question

Bonjour Cécile. A few weeks ago I said I’d find an example of a run on sentence. In this lesson, I had one: Je ne peux pas parler maintenant, je suis en train de travailler. In English, we’d separate the two independent clauses with a semi-colon or a period, not a comma. I’m asking if it’s standard in French to use a comma to separate two clauses? Merci pour votre réponse !

Accepted Answer

Thanks for getting back to me on this Liz!
In French, to my knowledge, you would only use a comma as the two clauses have a strong link. Here are some examples where you would use a semi-colon ( point-virgule) in French):
La planète se réchauffe; les glaciers reculent d’années en années. 
L’objet de la guerre, c’est la victoire; celui de la victoire, la conquête; celui de la conquête, la conservation. (quote from Montesquieu - source- Le Petit Grevisse)
Hope this helps but I am not a ponctuation expert!