The purpose of commas is to make writing clearer by splitting the words and phrases that make up a sentence apart. Despite this fairly simple purpose, comma usage can often be confusing to new and veteran writers alike. There seem to be too many possible rules, and sometimes the rule will change depending on whom …
Grammar
Whenever you start learning a language, there are always a few things that are bound to stump you. There are words that have multiple meanings, and the only way to figure out the meaning is from the surrounding contexts. There are phrases and expressions that are completely idiomatic and have nothing to do with the …
Not many writers think commas are fun. In fact, they stress a lot of people out. But commas don’t have to make you pull your hair! The trick to understanding commas is to break apart the sentence itself, identify the parts of it, and then use a few simple rules to determine when and where …
Language is a funny thing. Even though it purports to have clear rules, these rules are constantly being broken or changed. The thing that most people forget is that language is not like math. It isn’t made up of rigid rules that never change with time. Instead, language is a living, breathing creature, one that …
When it comes to grammar, most of the rules are logical when you think about them. For instance, plural nouns take plural verbs, independent clauses are separated from each other by a comma, and the subject of a participial phrase should be the same as the main clause so as to avoid dangling participles. In …
Commas have a bad reputation, especially among less confident writers. The rules of when and how to use them seem arbitrary, and that makes anything scary. The reasons for this vary. Some people may have never learned proper usage, or were taught using old-fashioned style guides that made the rules less clear rather than explaining …
Commas are tricky creatures. A lot of the time, whether you use them or not depends on how important the following information is. So, if the information you provide is critical to the meaning of the sentence, then you shouldn’t use a comma. For instance, when talking about your oldest brother, you should say, “My …
Do You Need a Comma Before “Then”? You need a comma before then in sentences that have conditional clauses (aka, ‘if/then’ statements). A comma is also needed when ‘then’ separates two independent clauses. If you’re omitting ‘and’ or ‘but’ before ‘then,’ include a comma for clarity, even without two independent clauses. Dividing Two Conditional …
We’ve already seen how confusing commas can be. We’ve talked about curious adverbs such as “regardless,” and we’ve scrutinized polysemic words, aka words that have more than one meaning, including the word “rather.” However, not all polysemic words should be treated in the same manner. What applies to a word like “rather” might not apply …