Commas, commas, commas!? Where!?

IP: *.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl 21.02.04, 17:13
Okaaay.... I have a *major* problem with commas. Native speaker sometimes
don't give a damn about them.... but *I* certainly do!

First of all, what about a comma before "but"? I know that it's rather
unnecessary in short expressions or equally short sentences, but what about
slightly longer ones? Like the one I've just written?

What about "as well"? Does a comma look strange in: "Please, this may take a
while, you should take a seat, as well?" ...obviously, I mean the third
comma. (It *does* look weird, I s'posse... but maybe that's how it should be?)

Oh, and BTW: I know that we put commas before and after "however"... but what
about "nevertheless", "nonetheless" and such?


...Thanks for answering these questions! ...And - quoting Arnie- "I'll be
back!" With more questions, of course...
    • Gość: marek Re: Commas, commas, commas!? Where!? IP: *.hwr.arizona.edu 21.02.04, 22:20
      The basic rule is to put commas where you would pause in speech.
      It is supposed to (1) illuminate the grammar in the sentence, and (2) to point
      up the rhytm, pitch and tone of speech. Because it serves one of these two
      functions, the use of commas has considerable flexibility, and it cannot be
      learned by simple rule. And it is largely a matter of style; different writers
      would use different punctuations.

      I suggest that you write a sentence, read it aloud, and then decide where (or
      whether) to place commas. Whatever you do will be fine; it will be your style.

      At closing, I reproduce a funny story from a book on punctuation written by
      Lynne Truss, entitled "Eats, Shoots and Leaves":

      A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and
      fires two shots into the air.

      "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda
      produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulders.

      "I am a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

      The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

      "PANDA. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots
      and leaves."
      • Gość: nickless Re: Commas, commas, commas!? Where!? IP: *.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl 21.02.04, 23:41
        No rules... damn... just as I thought! :P Anyway, thanks for this advice; I'll
        try to keep it in mind next time. The point is, I'm kind of pedantic, so
        sometimes the inability to judge the correctness of my own punctuation drives
        me insane.
        ...But hey, when you said that I should basically try to create my own style...
        well, that /was/ a bit of a consolation. Once again, thanks!

        PS: The story about panda... nice! ^___^
    • Gość: Helper Re: Commas, commas, commas!? Where!? IP: *.proxy.aol.com 22.02.04, 00:32
      chuma.cas.usf.edu/~olson/pms/comma.html
      universitywriting.shu.ac.uk/punct/advice/s_comma.htm
      freereads.topcities.com/comma,html
      • Gość: H. Re: Commas, commas, commas!? Where!? IP: *.proxy.aol.com 22.02.04, 00:36
        In the last link change comma (sic!) before html into dot.
        • Gość: nickless Re: Commas, commas, commas!? Where!? IP: *.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl 22.02.04, 01:07
          My savior! ^__^ Thank you, thank you, once again thank you!

          Those pages actually turned out to be /very/ helpful. It's not that I had
          absolutely no idea about the rules listed there, but, you see, I was slowly
          beginning to think that these rules somehow... lost their value, or have been
          changed. Frankly speaking, most natives I know simply ignore the proper use of
          commas in their daily lives. It's easy to notice... and, well, it was the
          source of my confusion.

          Hehe, but now I'm once again certain that it's okay to put a comma
          before 'and', for example... My life's back to normal. ^__^ Thanks!
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