{"id":1000,"date":"2014-09-05T06:55:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T05:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2014-09-05T06:55:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T05:55:48","slug":"lets-eat-grandma-how-to-use-and-not-use-the-comma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/?p=1000","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s eat Grandma! How to use, and not use the comma"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018If you could edit your past, what would you change?\u2019<\/h1>\n

\u2018I\u2019d get rid of all the commas\u2019 \u2013 Peter Carey<\/h1>\n<\/figure>\n
A misplaced comma can provide hours of fun on the web but sabotage the meaning of a sentence.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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The Guardian (4-9-2014)<\/p>\n

Despite claims to the contrary Peter Carey did not get rid of all the commas in his 2001 Booker prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang (there are 13 on the first page alone) and attempting to write without them is a pretty bad idea in general because as you can see you are likely to end up with very long unwieldy sentences like this one that are difficult to read and leave your poor readers out of breath well before they get to the end.<\/p>\n

A comma helps the reader by inserting breathing space into a sentence, making it easier to read, like this one. Using a comma wrongly, as in this sentence is very irritating.<\/p>\n

To help develop an instinctive feel for the flow of a sentence, try reading it aloud and insert a comma when you pause (as I just did after the word \u201csentence\u201d). If you use commas as parentheses, to explain something or add extra information as I am doing here, make sure you add the second comma just as you would add a second bracket. So the second sentence of the headline above should read \u201cHow to use, and not use, the comma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commas have lots of other uses. A misplaced one might even be damaging to your health. Compare \u201cDo not administer any liquids which are diuretic\u201d (some liquids are permissible) and \u201cDo not administer any liquids, which are diuretic\u201d (all liquids are forbidden).<\/p>\n

If you could use \u201cand\u201d between adjectives in a list, use a comma: a bright red car doesn\u2019t need one because you wouldn\u2019t say \u201ca bright and red car\u201d; a tall, dark, handsome man does, because you could say \u201ctall and dark and handsome\u201d. This example from the Guardian shows how a misplaced comma in such a list can actually sabotage the intended meaning: \u201cNeocon economists often claim a large, black economy turbo-powers growth.\u201d The writer meant a large black economy, not a large and black one, which is what this says.<\/p>\n

You can use a comma to introduce a quote, \u201cHe said,\u201d although I prefer a colon: \u201cHe added.\u201d<\/p>\n

A comma can also change the general to the specific. Note these two sentences:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe author David Marsh says this is more interesting than many grammar books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe author, David Marsh, says this is more interesting than many grammar books.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the first example, David Marsh is an author in general; in the second, he is specifically identified as the author of this book. It is interchangeable with \u201cDavid Marsh, the author, says \u2026 \u201d whereas in the first example \u201cDavid Marsh the author says\u201d sounds a little unnatural, unless it\u2019s to differentiate him from all the other David Marshes.<\/p>\n

A comma splice, which sounds painful, occurs when a comma is not up to the job of joining two clauses: \u201cThis was sensible advice, it was almost too easy\u201d would be improved by using a semicolon or a conjunction such as \u201cbut\u201d instead of the comma.<\/p>\n

Commas are crucially important in relative clauses. To see how to get it wrong, consider this example from the Guardian: \u201cPart of the report will heavily criticise a so-called power culture among the Dublin bishops who have been accused of not taking the allegations seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

As written, the words beginning \u201cwho have been accused\u201d comprise a restrictive relative clause: it says only some Dublin bishops have been accused. The writer in fact meant to say all of the bishops had been accused, so needed to insert a comma after \u201cbishops\u201d to introduce a non-restrictive relative clause:<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the report will heavily criticise a so-called power culture among the Dublin bishops, who have been accused of not taking the allegations seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the sentence now with the relative clause removed: \u201cPart of the report will heavily criticise a so-called power culture among the Dublin bishops\u201d you can see this still conveys the desired meaning that all the Dublin bishops and their so-called power culture have been criticised.<\/p>\n

So if you add a relative clause giving additional, non-essential information, you must introduce it with a comma. You wouldn\u2019t think such a simple thing could completely change the meaning, but it can and does all the time, which is why understanding how commas work is so important.<\/p>\n

Keith Waterhouse advised: \u201cCommas are not condiments. Do not pepper sentences with them unnecessarily.\u201d Quite so, but a well-placed one is the difference between \u201cwhat is this thing called love?\u201d and \u201cwhat is this thing called, love?\u201d And between \u201clet\u2019s eat, Grandma!\u201d and \u2026 well, you know the rest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018If you could edit your past, what would you change?\u2019 \u2018I\u2019d get rid of all the commas\u2019 \u2013 Peter Carey A misplaced comma can provide hours of fun on the web but sabotage the meaning of a sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,2,13,65,57],"tags":[143,172,144],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesusromerotrillo.es\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}