ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Comma usage

Mister Micawber — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 23:00:03 GMT

so, a comma after a conjunction "and" constitutes a no-no?

Yes, a no-no, although I'm sure there are some floating around. To punctuate your sentence(s) in several acceptable ways:

The minister says the VAT is implemented so as to help the the poor; why not increase it to ten or even fifteen percent to cut to the chase?
The minister says the VAT is implemented so as to help the the poor. Why not increase it to ten or even fifteen percent to cut to the chase?
The minister says the VAT is implemented so as to help the the poor-- and why not increase it to ten or even fifteen percent to cut to the chase?

Re: Comma usage

Dan01 — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 08:30:12 GMT

philip, in another thread, says, a comma is equivalent to "and". so, a comma after a conjunction "and" constitutes a no-no?

link

Re: Comma usage

Dan01 — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 08:17:45 GMT

may i ask in what grammatical circumstances does one use a conjunction and a comma after a full-stop?

my ans: in this case, a conjunction is used to continue the point(s) made in the main clause. and, a comma is placed after it to signal a pause.

question: The minster says the VAT is implemented so as to help the poor. and, why not increase it to ten to fifteen percent to cut the chase?

is this right? thank you.

Re: Comma usage

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 08:06:20 GMT

may i ask in what grammatical circumstances does one use a conjunction and a comma after a full-stop?

my ans: in this case, a conjunction is used to continue the point(s) made in the main clause. and, a comma is placed after it to signal a pause.

question: the minister says the VAT is implemented so as to help the the poor. and, why not increase it to ten or even fifteen percent to cut the chase?

is this right? thank you.

Re: Comma usage

Mister Micawber — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 08:10:37 GMT

The rule given is a guideline, and commas in general are controlled as much by guideline as by legislation; it is often a question of clarity. I think that, in the sentence you quote, the length and complexity of the two dependent clauses have encouraged the writer to insert the unnecessary comma in order to help the reader sort out the structure.

You might be interested in Gertrude Stein's take on commas:

And what does a comma do, a comma does nothing but make easy a thing that if you like it enough is easy enough without the comma. A long complicated sentence should force itself upon you, make you know yourself knowing it and the comma, well at the most a comma is a poor period that lets you stop and take a breath but if you want to take a breath you ought to know yourself that you want to take a breath. It is not like stopping altogether has something to do with going on, but taking a breath well you are always taking a breath and why emphasize one breath rather than another breath. Anyway that is the way I felt about it and I felt that about it very very strongly. And so I almost never used a comma. The longer, the more complicated the sentence the greater the number of the same kinds of words I had following one after another, the more the very more I had of them the more I felt the passionate need of their taking care of themselves by themselves and not helping them, and thereby enfeebling them by putting in a comma.
So that is the way I felt about punctuation in prose, in poetry it is a little different but more so â¦

â Gertrude Stein
from Lectures in America

Comma usage

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 03:43:38 GMT

"One local police chief told me that there were now Iraqi police and soldiers on streets where six months before there had been none, and that murders and kidnappings had been reduced substantially."

I was taught that you should only place a comma before "and" when what follows is an independants clause. What is the logic behind the comma in this sentence?