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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

A letter describing....

Hello, teachers. I have a question. In my text book, there is a sentence, "They wrote a letter to the company, describing its advertising as inappropriate." But I do not understand why there is a comma between 'the company' and 'describing'. Because I think 'describing' just modifies a letter, we do not need the comma. Don't you think so? Or is there a different way of understanding the sentence? Thank you so much in advance and I really hope to hear from you.
  

Top answer

If the comma is left out in the textbook example, the antecedent becomes more confusing, because, as you say "I think 'describing' just modifies a letter " Compare with this one without the comma: They wrote the company a letter describing its advertising as inappropriate.

— AlpheccaStars

  • If the comma is left out in the textbook example, the antecedent becomes more confusing, because, as you say "I think 'describing' just modifies a letter " Compare with this one without the comma: They wrote the company a letter describing its advertising as inappropriate.
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4 Answers
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If the comma is left out in the textbook example, the antecedent becomes more confusing, because, as you say "I think 'describing' just modifies a letter"

Compare with this one without the comma:

They wrote the company a letter describing its advertising as inappropriate.
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So you agree that 'describing...' modifies 'a letter' in the sentence? And if it is apart from a real antecedent, it is better to put a comma not to make the sentence confusing? Thank you.
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AnonymousSo you agree that 'describing...' modifies 'a letter' in the sentence? And if it is apart from a real antecedent, it is better to put a comma not to make the sentence confusing? Thank you.
So you agree that 'describing...' modifies 'a letter' in the sentence? yes.

And if it is apart from a real antecedent, it is better to put a comma not to m
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AlpheccaStars in this case, yes.
Sorry to bother you a lot but I would like to make sure that a comma is needed 100% or optional. I think the meaning of 'in this case' in your reply says a comma is always not needed when a real antecedent is apart from relative pronouns. Did I understand you right? Thank you.
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