A teacher once asked, “What else could be more perplexing than the punctuation system?” One student answers, “Punctuation decision before words, which belong to multiple parts of speech.” The straight-A student cringed and thought, “You should’ve used that. Not which.” No matter which kind of student you used to be, or you still are, this …
Grammar
Questions on comma placement before subordinate clauses seem to pop up quite a lot on the internet. This might be because the term “subordinate” sounds a bit too technical, or perhaps, most people think that the punctuation system is too complicated and hard to digest. One thing’s for sure though, and that is, the role …
There are too many other things to worry about in the world, so why even bother taking the time to learn the punctuation system, right? Before I start discussing the nuances behind commas, I’d like to stress the point that having good writing skills could move mountains. Not literally, of course, but writing is the …
What is the most annoying punctuation mark in English? You guessed it right! Commas. But, are they really a hard nut to crack? Please read through the end of this post, and you’ll find out how easy peasy it is to punctuate sentences with commas, especially with the word “overall.” Do we always need …
What about the punctuation of the temporal expression “yesterday”? Do I need a comma after it or not? Well, not so fast, please! The answer to this question is probably more difficult than you would expect. That said, the short answer to the question is simply: Sometimes, it is followed by a comma, and sometimes, …
Is putting a comma before “hence” always necessary? If so, how do we know whether the sentence structure requires it or not? And, is the comma decision even dependent on the structure of the sentence? Or can the writer also freely decide it? If these questions have been sitting at the back of your head, …
Sometimes things don’t work out, no matter how hard you try. One way to talk about that is to use the expression “to no avail,” but there are other options, too. Let’s explore all the varied ways to express inevitable failure in English. What is the meaning of “to no avail”? The expression “to …
A non-native English speaker asks a coworker, who is a native speaker, whether it should be “suggest to go” or “suggest going.” The coworker responds, “The two expressions seem to be correct, but I think ‘suggest going’ is a better phrase.” Both ended up scratching their heads and started googling for some grammatical explanations. So, …
When was the last time you were able to appropriately use a comma before “please?” And, when is a comma not necessary before it? I bet these seemingly-no-brainer questions often cross your mind when writing emails or even direct messaging with an “authority figure.” Fortunately, you’ve just reached the right site to seek some definitive …