{"id":8830,"date":"2020-10-21T09:33:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T09:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=8830"},"modified":"2023-04-13T22:17:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T22:17:46","slug":"comma-before-whereas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-whereas\/","title":{"rendered":"Comma before &#8220;whereas&#8221;: The Definitive Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><p>Some words are more common than others. Others just sound cool.<\/p>\n<p>No matter whether a word is as typical as &ldquo;and&rdquo; or as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/weird-english-words\/\">unusual<\/a><\/strong> as schadenfreude, however, one thing that doesn&rsquo;t change is commas.<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s because, contrary to popular belief, what determines the rules for comma usage is not the word itself but the part of speech it fills and its role in a given sentence.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, let&rsquo;s take a look at a somewhat uncommon word, &ldquo;whereas.&rdquo;<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n[toc]\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Do you need a comma before &ldquo;whereas&rdquo;?<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Any time &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; appears in the middle of a sentence, you will need a comma before it. This is because &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is a subordinating conjunction, a type of word used to connect a dependent clause to the main clause of the sentence. This type of conjunction must be preceded with a comma whenever it appears in the middle of a sentence. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>However, you should never use a comma after &ldquo;whereas,&rdquo; only in front of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Comma rules for &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; in more detail<\/h2>\n<p>The other consideration with &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is how and where to place a comma.<\/p>\n<p>The rule for subordinate conjunctions is simple, fortunately. Whenever you use one, you need to place a comma in front of it.<\/p>\n<p>That means any time you feel like showing off with this word, you&rsquo;ll need to use a comma before &ldquo;whereas.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this only holds if &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is in the middle of a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>If you are splitting your clauses into multiple sentences for effect, you obviously should not place a comma before any of the words in your sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Note that in some contexts, like on a school paper, splitting a subordinate clause into its own sentence may be considered ungrammatical.<\/p>\n<p>In other places, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-though\/\">though<\/a><\/strong>, like in a short story or poem, you can probably get away with it.<\/p>\n<p>No matter where you place &ldquo;whereas,&rdquo; though, it&rsquo;s important to note one more thing.<\/p>\n<p>You should never place a comma after it. (Of course, this is only true if there isn&rsquo;t something else in the sentence calling for a comma.<\/p>\n<p>If you have a nonessential <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/but-i-digress-meaning\/\">digression<\/a><\/strong> right after &ldquo;whereas,&rdquo; for instance, a comma may well be warranted.)<\/p>\n<p>To rephrase that using the word itself to show contrast: When a subordinating conjunction is in the middle of a sentence a comma must precede it, whereas at the beginning of a sentence no comma is used at all.<\/p>\n<h3>Examples<\/h3>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;In my neighborhood it rained all afternoon, whereas Julie insisted she didn&rsquo;t see a spot of rain all day.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Here, a comma is used before &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; because it is a subordinating conjunction placed in the middle of the sentence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;After I served them serrano peppers, my father spent all evening complaining about his stomach. Whereas my mother was thrilled.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Here, on the other hand, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; appears as the first word in a sentence and no comma is used.<\/p>\n<p>This example makes it pretty clear why some teachers may not like &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; used at the start of a sentence.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-even\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Even<\/a><\/strong> more than &ldquo;and&rdquo; or &ldquo;so,&rdquo; something as unusual as &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; really stands out.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8837\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png\" alt='English Grammar: Comma Before \"Whereas\"' width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-758x1137.png 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8837 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201000%201500'%3E%3Crect%20width='1000'%20height='1500'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt='English Grammar: Comma Before \"Whereas\"' width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Comma-Before-Whereas-758x1137.png 758w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The word &ldquo;whereas&rdquo;<\/h2>\n<p>The word &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is fairly uncommon, and most people will encounter it rarely.<\/p>\n<p>Depending on context, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; has two meanings. The first of these is roughly the same as &ldquo;on the other hand,&rdquo; and in this sense the word can be used in a regular conversation.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-sometimes\/\">Sometimes<\/a>,<\/strong> you will also see &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; used in legal or very formal writing. In this case, it means something like &ldquo;considering the following.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, because this use of &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is even more rare, this article will talk only about the first meaning unless otherwise noted.<\/p>\n<p>No matter the meaning intended, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is a conjunction, a type of word used to connect two clauses in a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>A clause, to quickly review that point, is a grouping of words in a sentence that contains a subject, a verb and, optionally, an object or other argument.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is a subordinating conjunction. That means it is used to connect a dependent clause to a main clause in a way that shows their relationship.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, a subordinating connects a group of words which shows an incomplete idea to the other, more important clause in a sentence that helps complete it.<\/p>\n<p>With &ldquo;whereas,&rdquo; the connection between the two shows that the subordinate clause either contradicts or builds upon the main clause.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&ldquo;Whereas&rdquo; in a legal document<\/h2>\n<p>One place the word &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; frequently appears is as the preamble, or introduction, of a legal document such as a will, contract or the Constitution of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>In this kind of document, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; has a slightly different meaning than usual. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/but-rather-in-a-sentence\/\">Rather<\/a><\/strong> than acting as a synonym for &ldquo;but&rdquo; or &ldquo;although,&rdquo; in legal writing &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; means something closer to &ldquo;since&rdquo; or &ldquo;because.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While the legal &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; follows the same rules as the kind of &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; you could use in normal language, there are a few differences between the two types other than the meanings.<\/p>\n<p>Legal &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is usually part of a list, where it&rsquo;s used to enumerate multiple <em>legal<\/em> clauses (such as the parts of a contract). Interestingly, and contrary to normal capitalization rules, the word is frequently in all caps in a legal document.<\/p>\n<p>Although this seems strange, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-before-since\/\">since<\/a><\/strong> the purpose of the &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; here is to clearly differentiate between things that might have a legal consequence, it makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-rules\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comma rules<\/a><\/strong> can vary slightly as well. Legal writing follows its own rules that are too complicated to go into here, but the short version is that in legal documents &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is more likely to be separated by a semi-colon and the word &ldquo;and&rdquo; than by a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/unnecessary-commas\/\">comma<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Mainly, this is because the legal clauses it separates can be as long as several paragraphs.<\/p>\n<h3>Examples<\/h3>\n<div class=\"su-quote su-quote-style-default su-quote-has-cite\"><div class=\"su-quote-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\">&ldquo;WHEREAS, the Board of Public Works and Safety of the City of Greenwood, Indiana (the &ldquo;Board&rdquo;) recognizes that health insurance is an important benefit to the City&rsquo;s employees; WHEREAS health insurance represents a significant expenditure to the City&rsquo;s budget; and WHEREAS the City&rsquo;s health insurance plan is renewed annually on April I&hellip;&rdquo;<span class=\"su-quote-cite\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenwood.in.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Greenwood Government<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<p>This is a portion of a real document in the public domain, a health insurance-related resolution from the city of Greenwood, Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>There are several more clauses, <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/how-to-use-after-which-in-a-sentence\/\" title=\"after which\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">after which<\/a> the actual resolution is written.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, all the clauses preceded by &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; serve to set the stage for what the document is presenting to the reader.<\/p>\n<p>Although it looks pretty strange, this is standard usage in a legal context.<\/p>\n<p>Generally speaking, though, unless for some reason you&rsquo;re writing the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ashford.edu\/constitution\/preamble\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">preamble<\/a><\/strong> to an official document, you should always put a comma before &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; if it appears in the middle of a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Using &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; in a sentence<\/h2>\n<p>So what do you do if you want to break out &ldquo;whereas&rdquo;?<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, the best answer is probably &ldquo;don&rsquo;t.&rdquo; Because this word is a tiny bit archaic, people may look at you strangely if you say it out loud.<\/p>\n<p>In some formal written contexts, though, it can be useful to know how to use &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; in a sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Since &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is a conjunction, it needs to follow a main <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/clauses-vs-phrases\/#Clauses\">clause<\/a><\/strong> and precede a subordinate clause.<\/p>\n<p>To think about that in another way, think about the main idea of your sentence. This is your main clause.<\/p>\n<p>If there&rsquo;s another, different idea you want to contrast with that main clause, then that second idea is your subordinate clause.<\/p>\n<p>Because &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is similar in meaning to &ldquo;but&rdquo; or &ldquo;however,&rdquo; you also need to make sure that the two ideas oppose one another somehow.<\/p>\n<h3>Examples<\/h3>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;Julie said it would rain, whereas the weather forecast called for a sunny afternoon.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"su-note\" style=\"border-color:#dbdad8;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#f5f4f2;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">&ldquo;My father hates spicy food, whereas my mother adores it.&rdquo;<\/div><\/div>\n<p>These two sentences show how odd this word can look in casual conversation. In both places, the word &ldquo;but&rdquo; would sound more natural to listeners <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/comma-after-today\/\">today<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Old-fashioned sound aside, though, both these sentences are technically correct uses of &ldquo;whereas,&rdquo; showing the contrast between the two ideas.<\/p>\n<p>In the first example, the main idea is &ldquo;Julie said it would rain.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This idea stands alone, making it our main clause, whereas the clause &ldquo;whereas the weather forecast called for a sunny afternoon&rdquo; is not a sentence by itself, and is thus our subordinate clause.<\/p>\n<p>Notice how &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; was used in that description to show the difference in the two clauses?<\/p>\n<p>Once you know how to use it, &ldquo;whereas&rdquo; is pretty useful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some words are more common than others. Others just sound cool. No matter whether a word is as typical as &ldquo;and&rdquo; or as unusual as schadenfreude, however, one thing that doesn&rsquo;t change is commas. That&rsquo;s because, contrary to popular belief, what determines the rules for comma usage is not the word itself but the part &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"Article","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1119,1116],"tags":[80,130,131],"class_list":["post-8830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-comma-rules","category-grammar","tag-comma","tag-comma-before-whereas","tag-whereas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8830"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25065,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8830\/revisions\/25065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}