State is on your side; it recommends that official publications follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, which is the bible for book publishing and for academic publishing in general. Question (from two English teachers): Would you add a comma below after March 2? One of us would, one wouldn't, and both of us are English teachers (64 years of collective teaching experience, 28 years of marriage)
He told me that his birthday wish would be for me to do a show to help him understand the difference between dashes, commas, and parentheses because it keeps coming up in his writing
Adjective Clause
It does not need commas separating it from the rest of the sentence if it has essential information in it; that is if you need the information it provides. The three types of dependent clauses are: Adverbial (or adverb) - Adverbial clauses function as an adverb and answer the questions: when, where, why, how, and how much
pastA verb tense used to refer to something that happened before the present, for example:We went shopping last Saturday.Did you go for a meal, too?Learn more about verb tenses. pronounA word such as I, he, she, it, we, hers, us, your, or they that is used instead of a noun to indicate someone or something that has already been mentioned, especially to avoid repeating the noun
Clauses Make the World Go Round
If you know how to diagram sentences, you can see in the sentence diagram that I love the library is sitting in the spot where the direct object goes.If you don't know how to diagram sentences, you'll just have to take my word for it until you learn how to diagram for yourself! If you want to teach or learn grammar the easy way, then follow a step-by-step program that clearly lays everything out for you and allows you to move at your own pace. To get your free Parts of Speech guide and receive Elizabeth's bi-weekly articles on improving your grammar and having fun with sentence diagramming, enter your email address and name below right now
Run-on sentences happen typically under the following circumstances*: When an independent clause gives an order or directive based on what was said in the prior independent clause: This next chapter has a lot of difficult information in it, you should start studying right away. Click here to see a 239-word sentence that is a perfectly fine sentence (structurally) When two independent clauses are connected by only a comma, they constitute a run-on sentence that is called a comma-splice
Clauses and Commas
Two Independent Clauses When each of two independant clauses expresses a complete idea, but the two ideas are linked together, we often combine them into one sentence so that the reader can easily see the relationship between them. Yet, if you take the time to learn the basic rules of sentence structure and punctuation, then it becomes much easier to avoid such common problems as incomplete sentences, run-on sentences, and faulty use of commas
"He hit the ball, dropped the bat, and ran to first base." You may have learned that the comma before the "and" is unnecessary, which is fine if you're in control of things. Sometimes the appositive and the word it identifies are so closely related that the comma can be omitted, as in "His wife Eleanor suddenly decided to open her own business." We could argue that the name "Eleanor" is not essential to the meaning of the sentence (assuming he has only one wife), and that would suggest that we can put commas both before and after the name (and that would also be correct), but "his wife" and "Eleanor" are so close that we can regard the entire phrase as one unit and leave out the commas
Writer's Web: Using Commas
Rule of thumb: if removing the information would drastically change the sentence's meaning, then that information is essential and should not be set off by commas. You can avoid hard-to-read sentences this way: Confusing: All small boats must return to port immediately or they may sink in the hurricane that is approaching the bay
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ACT SparkNotes Test Prep: Punctuation
The ACT writers probably realized that these sentence enders are easier to grasp than other forms of punctuation because they basically each have only one function: The sentence ends here. The main functions of a semicolon that you should know for the English Test are its ability to join related independent clauses and its use in a series
Grammar Bytes! :: The Clause
If, however, we revise dog and choose more specific words instead, the relative clause becomes nonessential and does require commas to separate it from the rest of the sentence
Adjunct Prepositional Phrases COORDINATE OR SUBORDINATE CLAUSE A clause that begins with a coordinator (and, but, or) is a coordinate of the main clause. a Clause FRAGMENT A fragment is a grouping of words that together do not express a complete thought or do not meet the requirements of being a grammatical sentence
What Is a Comma Splice, and How Do I Fix It?
I am not even sure it is considered a matter of concern in British usage, and if any of my readers are from the U.K., I would like to know whether current usage there abhors the comma splice as does American usage. I don't recommend gratuitously splitting an infinitive or ending a sentence with a preposition, simply because so many people are likely to jump on you when you do
Subordinate Clauses and Commas
Enquire 25 Pieces of Writing Software 12 Greek Words You Should Know Cannot or Can Not? What Does Sic Mean? 100 Small But Expressive Interjections Wether, Weather, Whether 34 Writing Tips To Write Better Yours Faithfully or Yours Sincerely? Latin Words and Expressions Grammar Test 1 Program vs. I would like to have the privilege of having access to your valuable knowledge and expertise as a mentor, to assist me as a mentee, in start building a network with a view to obtaining employment in a post-secondary educational institution
What Is a Subordinate Clause?
It is a group of words with a subject (who) and a verb (looked), and the whole clause is functioning as an adjective modifying the noun woman, which is the subject of the independent clause. Wow! That's a mouthful!It is a group of words with a subject (brother) and a verb (is), and the whole clause is acting as an adverb modifying the adjective faster in the independent clause
The second exception for using a comma before because is when the cause in because could be paired with the wrong element, creating confusion for the reader. Keep in mind that while we were looking at commas with dependent clauses, we were specifically looking at adverbial clauses beginning with subordinating conjunctions
I am guessing that whether to put comma or not after the "so" conjunction is related to the context and emphasis rather than to the sentence structure, but I am unable to pinpoint it out. If so is followed by a parenthetical phrase, a comma naturally follows in either style (though some authors find this comma burdensome and leave it out)
Grammar Bytes! :: The Subordinate Clause
Since the two simple sentences are related, you can combine them to express the action more effectively: Rhonda gasped when a six-foot snake slithered across the sidewalk. If we rewrite the example above so that the two ideas are flipped, the wrong point gets emphasized: When a six-foot snake slithered across the side walk, Rhonda gasped
Of course, there are times when comma omission will result in momentary ambiguity and is to be avoided: While I was cooking my daughter did her homework. As to official rules on comma use to separate clauses, there are none (unlike in German for example where the comma is mandatory between dependent and independent clauses regardless of where the clauses are placed.) The previous sentence is an example of the light punctuation that I as a British writer prefer but which would seem careless to some American readers
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