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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Clause without a subject?
In the following sentence...
I went to the store and bought some bananas.
... are there two clauses?
1. I went to the store
2. [ I ] bought some bananas
I know there is only one noun, but it is acting as subject for both clauses.
The sentence could also be written:
I went to the store, and I bought some bananas.
But could I write it like this?:
I went to the store, and bought some bananas.
Thanks
(Edited to add space to either side of the "I" to eliminate the conversion to an icon. -- GG)
I went to the store and bought some bananas.
... are there two clauses?
1. I went to the store
2. [ I ] bought some bananas
I know there is only one noun, but it is acting as subject for both clauses.
The sentence could also be written:
I went to the store, and I bought some bananas.
But could I write it like this?:
I went to the store, and bought some bananas.
Thanks
(Edited to add space to either side of the "I" to eliminate the conversion to an icon. -- GG)
Top answer
You don't need the comma there and technically it's incorrect. If you place it there, you are instructing your reader to pause significantly, and if there was some dramatic effect you wanted to achieve, I suppose you could do this, although a strict prescriptionist would tell you it's wrong. There may be times with a very complex predicate when you might insert a comma there to indicate that the next big old predicate is coming (and even then a prescriptivist editor may remove it), but with a sentence this short, it's totally unnecessary.
- You don't need the comma there and technically it's incorrect.
- If you place it there, you are instructing your reader to pause significantly, and if there was some dramatic effect you wanted to achieve, I suppose you could do this, although a strict prescriptionist would tell you it's wrong.
- There may be times with a very complex predicate when you might insert a comma there to indicate that the next big old predicate is coming (and even then a prescriptivist editor may remove it), but with a sentence this short, it's totally unnecessary.
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2 Answers
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You don't need the comma there and technically it's incorrect. If you place it there, you are instructing your reader to pause significantly, and if there was some dramatic effect you wanted to achieve, I suppose you could do this, although a strict prescriptionist would tell you it's wrong.
There may be times with a very complex predicate when you might insert a comma there to indicate
There may be times with a very complex predicate when you might insert a comma there to indicate
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So what if I am dealing with a longer sentence?
I went to the store that John recommended for its low prices and bought some bananas.
In this case, is my sentence technically correct, yet possibly ambiguous? Should I just do this for clarity:
I went to the store that John recommended for its low pri
I went to the store that John recommended for its low prices and bought some bananas.
In this case, is my sentence technically correct, yet possibly ambiguous? Should I just do this for clarity:
I went to the store that John recommended for its low pri
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