{"id":4271,"date":"2016-12-23T12:56:05","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T20:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=4271"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:42:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:42:34","slug":"english-punctuation-comma-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/english-punctuation-comma-optional\/","title":{"rendered":"English Punctuation: Times When a Comma is Optional"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4272\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4272\" style=\"width: 165px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4272\" src=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/11\/Comma_above.svg_-600x850.png\" alt=\"english punctuation comma optional\" width=\"165\" height=\"234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/11\/Comma_above.svg_-600x850.png 600w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/11\/Comma_above.svg_-212x300.png 212w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/11\/Comma_above.svg_-768x1088.png 768w, https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/files\/2016\/11\/Comma_above.svg_.png 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 165px) 100vw, 165px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4272\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo retrieved from <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Comma_above.svg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Is it ever hard for you to follow the comma rules in English? If so, I have some good news: sometimes you can make up the rules as you go!<\/p>\n<p>Over at the Magoosh High School Blog,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/hs\/act\/act-english\/2017\/act-english-punctuation-everything-you-need-to-know\/#commas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">You can get a good overview of the English rules for commas<\/a>. You&#8217;ll learn that comma use can be a matter of personal style. Today, we&#8217;re going to take a closer look at how you can make your own style choices, deciding to use \u2014 or\u00a0<em>not<\/em> use\u2014- commas.<\/p>\n<p>To see how style informs comma use, let&#8217;s look at a few pairs\u00a0of English sentences. Can you tell which sentence is more correct?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>PAIR\u00a01:<br \/>\n<\/strong>At the end of the long work day I went to bed.<br \/>\nAt the end of the long work day, I went to bed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PAIR 2:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe car crashed into the wall and crashed hard.<br \/>\nThe car crashed into the wall, and crashed hard.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PAIR 3:<br \/>\n<\/strong>You can&#8217;t come in because it&#8217;s too late.<br \/>\nYou can&#8217;t come in, because it&#8217;s too late.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PAIR 4:<br \/>\n<\/strong>She went into the tall dark building.<br \/>\nShe went into the tall, dark building.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you had trouble telling which sentence in each set was better, don&#8217;t feel bad. Your sense of uncertainty is actually correct. In the sentences above, you&#8217;d be right to think that neither sentence is better than the other. What you&#8217;ve just discovered is one of the stranger things about the rules of comma use in English: The rules for English commas are very\u00a0<i>flexible<\/i>&#8230; in some situations at least.<\/p>\n<p>In the second sentences of Pairs 1 and 2 above, the comma is used to mark a shift between an independent clause and a descriptive phrase. Then in sentence 2 of Pair 3, the comma shows a shift between a dependent clause and an independent clause. (See my post on <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/the-difference-between-a-clause-and-a-phrase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the difference between an English clause and a phrase<\/a> for more information.) Finally, the second sentence in Pair 4 uses a comma to separate two adjectives.<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0all of the above sentence pairs, the sentences are very short, so that the structure can be clear with or without a comma.\u00a0In the case of the first three pairs, there are obvious signal words that separate the independent clause from the other parts of the sentence. Pairs 2 and 3 use the conjunctions &#8220;and&#8221; and &#8220;because,&#8221; respectively. Pair 1 uses the preposition &#8220;at,&#8221; making it clear that the sentence opens with a prepositional phrase before moving on to the main clause. In the Pair 4, you don&#8217;t really need a comma between &#8220;tall&#8221; and &#8220;dark,&#8221; because it&#8217;s obvious that both words are distinct adjectives that describe the same thing.<\/p>\n<p>Because the commas aren&#8217;t strictly necessary, the decision to use a comma in sentences like the ones above is related to style and chosen emphasis, not strict punctuation rules.<\/p>\n<p>If you add a comma to &#8220;At the end of the long work day I went to bed,&#8221; you create a sense of pause. In the modified statement, &#8220;At the end of the long work day<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/span> I went to bed,&#8221; the comma is a &#8220;stop&#8221; that allows your reader to see work and sleep as two dramatically different things. The added comma makes the statement seem more forceful and dramatic. Without a comma, the original sentence sounds more matter-of-fact.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the comma creates a sense of dramatic pause and contrast in the remaining pairs of sentences above. &#8220;Crashed into the wall and crashed hard&#8221; makes &#8220;crashed hard&#8221; seem like an added detail about the crash. But with a comma, &#8220;crashed into the wall<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/span> and crashed hard&#8221; seems to emphasize that the crash was really terrible. In the same way &#8220;can&#8217;t come in because it&#8217;s too late&#8221; seems like a simple statement of cause and effect, but &#8220;can&#8217;t come in<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/span> because it&#8217;s too late&#8221; seems to emphasize the importance of coming in\u00a0<em>before<\/em> it&#8217;s too late. This second statement, with its comma, even hints that there might be a specific rule about how late it can be before someone isn&#8217;t allowed to come in. Last but not least, &#8220;tall dark&#8221; sounds like a simple description, while &#8220;tall<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/span> dark&#8221; makes it sound like the building in Pair 4 is extremely tall and extremely dark, perhaps in an ominous<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>,<\/strong><\/span> scary way.<\/p>\n<h2>Special Note: English Comma Use and Propositions of Time<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/prepositions-of-time-review-and-practice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Prepositions of time<\/a> have a special relationship with &#8220;comma choice.&#8221; When you have a sentence with a preposition of time, adding a comma can change the sentence&#8217;s entire meaning. These changes can be subtle, but are important. Consider the two pairs of sentences below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">PAIR A:<\/span><\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>We traveled to many countries before we retired.<br \/>\n<em>(<strong>MEANING:<\/strong>\u00a0We traveled around the world during a time period before our\u00a0retirement. We may or may not have continued to travel after retirement.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>We traveled to many countries, before we retired.<br \/>\n<em><strong>MEANING:<\/strong>\u00a0The time period where we\u00a0traveled distinctly contrasts with our years after retirement. We traveled a lot\u00a0before\u00a0they retired. But once we retired, that situation likely changed.<br \/>\n<strong>(The comma creates a sense of pause to emphasize the contrast between two time periods.)<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>PAIR B:<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>The boys were riding their bikes when it started raining.<br \/>\n<em>(<strong>MEANING:<\/strong>\u00a0During the time that the boys rode their bikes, it began to rain.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>The boys were riding their bikes, when it started raining.<br \/>\n<em>(<strong>MEANING:<\/strong>\u00a0The time period that the boys were riding their bikes probably ended because it started raining.<\/em>)<br \/>\n<strong><em>(The comma creates a sense of pause to emphasize the cause and effect relationship between two events in time.)<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bear in mind that all four of the sentences in Pair A and Pair B are correct. These short sentences are fine with or without a comma. The comma makes a difference in meaning, but commas aren&#8217;t needed to make these sentences correct in terms of punctuation or grammar.<\/p>\n<p>In longer sentences and phrases, the rules for the use of commas are more strict. When you have more than three adjectives, you really need to start separating them with a comma. Similarly,\u00a0more complicated phrases and clauses are more likely to absolutely need a comma between them. Basically, the longer a sentence is, the more you should treat commas as requirements instead of stylistic choices.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is it ever hard for you to follow the comma rules in English? If so, I have some good news: sometimes you can make up the rules as you go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-4271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>English Punctuation: Times When a Comma is Optional - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is it hard for you to follow the comma rules in English? If so, I have some good news: sometimes you can make up the rules as you go! 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0%2C50&amp;q=Recine+magoosh&amp;btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4271"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}