comma before 'when'?

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	Futurehuman11  #454601  Tue, 18 Dec 07 04:50 PM This lifestyle eventually caught up with the young man with a bright future, and he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter when he killed his girlfriend in a car crash. Should I use a comma before the bolded 'when'? 'When' isn't essential to the sentence, but I also heard that you should not use a comma when the subordinating conjuction of the dependent clause is not at the beginning of the sentence. HELP!    Futurehuman11 Joined on Sat, Dec 1 2007 Junior Member (77)
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	Yoong Liat  #454614  Tue, 18 Dec 07 05:15 PM I'd not use a comma.    Yoong Liat Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006 Singapore Veteran Member (6,023) Yoong Liat
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	Anonymous  #454618  Tue, 18 Dec 07 05:20 PM But isn't that clause nonessential.    Anonymous
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	Hoa Thai  #454620  Tue, 18 Dec 07 05:26 PM  Yoong Liat wrote: I'd not use a comma. Hi Yoong Liat, How did you interpret the clause 'when he killed his girlfriend in a car crash'? I am troubled with when, particularly the verb kill is in simple past tense, because the whole sentence could mean 'as soon as he killed his girlfriend, he was convicted ...' Even if when is replaced with because, I would rather use had killed instead of killed. Could you please share your thought? Thanks, Hoa Thai    Hoa Thai Joined on Mon, Oct 15 2007 Vietnam Contributing Member (1,100) Best Regards - Hoa Thai
Verbs, Tenses, Clauses, Commas, Simple past, Past tenses

	Philip  #454635  Tue, 18 Dec 07 06:10 PM  Hoa Thai wrote:  Yoong Liat wrote: I'd not use a comma. Hi Yoong Liat, How did you interpret the clause 'when he killed his girlfriend in a car crash'? I am troubled with when, particularly the verb kill is in simple past tense, because the whole sentence could mean 'as soon as he killed his girlfriend, he was convicted ...' Even if when is replaced with because, I would rather use had killed instead of killed. Could you please share your thought? Thanks, Hoa Thai I would use 'after' instead of 'when'.    Philip Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005 USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle) Veteran Member (6,181) At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen
Verbs, Tenses, Clauses, Commas, Simple past, Past tenses

	Yoong Liat  #454865  Wed, 19 Dec 07 09:25 AM Hi Hoa Thai My full attention was only on whether a comma is needed. I agree with you that 'when' is not appropriate in the sentence. I agree with Philip that 'after' should have  been used instead. Best wishes.    Yoong Liat
Commas