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dianne
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 7:05 am
Post subject: putting comma behind conjunctions |
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When I use conjunctions like "and, but, so, eventually" in front of a
sentence, sometimes I put a comma behind conjunctions but sometimes I
don't.
Does it matter? Are both correct?
Diane |
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Alec McKenzie
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 3:38 pm
Post subject: Re: putting comma behind conjunctions |
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"dianne" <whydyn@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | When I use conjunctions like "and, but, so, eventually" in front of a
sentence, sometimes I put a comma behind conjunctions but sometimes I
don't.
Does it matter? Are both correct?
|
The entry for 'and' or ', and' in the tenth edition of Authors'
and Printers' Dictionary (F. Howard Collins, Oxford University
Press) might be of interest:-
The late Herbert Spencer allowed me to quote from his
letter:--'whether to write "black, white, and green", with the
comma after *white*, or to leave out the comma and write "black,
white and green"--I very positively decide in favour of the
first. To me the comma is of value as marking out the component
elements of a thought, and where any set of components of a
thought are of equal value, they should be punctuated in
printing and in speech equally. Evidently therefore in this
case, inasmuch as when enumerating these colours, black, white,
and green, the white is just as much to be emphasized as the
other two, it needs the pause after it just as much as the black
does.' (Insertion of the comma is current practice of O.U.P.)
--
Alec McKenzie
mckenzie@despammed.com |
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:00 pm
Post subject: Re: putting comma behind conjunctions |
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Alec McKenzie <mckenzie@despammed.com> wrote:
| Quote: | "dianne" <whydyn@gmail.com> wrote:
When I use conjunctions like "and, but, so, eventually" in front of a
sentence, sometimes I put a comma behind conjunctions but sometimes I
don't.
Does it matter? Are both correct?
The entry for 'and' or ', and' in the tenth edition of Authors'
and Printers' Dictionary (F. Howard Collins, Oxford University
Press) might be of interest:-
The late Herbert Spencer allowed me to quote from his
letter:--'whether to write "black, white, and green", with the
comma after *white*, or to leave out the comma and write "black,
white and green"--I very positively decide in favour of the
first.
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[Snip]
Sorry, but I don't think this was the question at all. "dianne" is
asking about starting sentences with those words. Is it:
Eventually, they found the right answer.
Or
Eventually they found the right answer.
I see it both ways these days -- does it depend on meaning? Haste?
formality? Length of sentence?
"And, But." The grammar and style manuals used to forbid starting a
sentence with "And" or "But," so they didn't need to worry about commas.
But (nearly) everyone always did use those words in those positions, and
they continue. Dianne, I think it depends a lot on the grammar of the
sentence that follows it.
"So." At first I thought you must have a comma, but no.
So you want to be a rock star.
So, you want to be a rock star.
If I dare talk about pauses, someone will shout me down.
Good question, Dianne. Some of the grammar and style guides in Intro B
might have good advice.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux |
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:03 pm
Post subject: Re: putting comma behind conjunctions |
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Donna Richoux <trio@euronet.nl> wrote:
| Quote: | Alec McKenzie <mckenzie@despammed.com> wrote:
"dianne" <whydyn@gmail.com> wrote:
When I use conjunctions like "and, but, so, eventually" in front of a
sentence, sometimes I put a comma behind conjunctions but sometimes I
don't.
Does it matter? Are both correct?
|
[Addition to my other answer]
Some people are no doubt lining up to tell you that "Eventually" is not
a conjunction. It's an adverb. Carry on.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux |
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Joe Fineman
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 7:09 am
Post subject: Re: putting comma behind conjunctions |
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"dianne" <whydyn@gmail.com> writes:
| Quote: | When I use conjunctions like "and, but, so, eventually" in front of
a sentence, sometimes I put a comma behind conjunctions but
sometimes I don't.
|
First of all, idiomatically "behind" should be "after". True, the
words are nearly synonyms, but "behind" has a spatial connotation that
makes it read oddly when you are marching thru a sentence. For the
same reason, I would write "at the beginning of" rather than "in front
of".
As others on this thread have noted, "eventually" does not count as a
conjunction, but a connective adverb. Such adverbs *are* normally
comma'd off; but conjunctions such as "but" & "and" are not. The only
good reason for doing so would be to suggest the emphatic pause that
sometimes follows such conjunctions in speech:
And, it's guaranteed for the life of the owner!
captures the inflection of a salesman gushing over his merchandise.
"So" is a borderline case, being a connective adverb that standard
English has halted about halfway along the road to being a
conjunction. I could tolerate
So, what are we going to do?
but not
So, do it, for God's sake!
and still less
So, what?
--
--- Joe Fineman joe_f@verizon.net
||: Wealth, like happiness, is best attained while pursuing  |
||: something else. | |
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