Question

Which sentence is punctuated correctly?
The man was wet; he was standing in the rain without an umbrella.
The man was wet, he was standing in the rain without an umbrella.
The man was wet he was standing in the rain without an umbrella.
The man was wet: he was standing in the rain without an umbrella.

Answer 1

"The man was wet; he was standing in the rain without an umbrella."

Explanation: These are two independent clauses. A semicolon correctly links them without a conjunction. The comma creates a comma splice (incorrect), no punctuation is a run-on, and a colon could be used for emphasis/explanation but the semicolon is the standard choice here.