Comma Confusion

Question

He gave her the reins of a pony, and she grasped its saddle horn but stood with her forehead resting against the animal's flank.

Must I insert a comma after horn? I think there is a compound verb here, so there is no need for a comma. she grasped..but stood...

What do you think?

Avangi · Accepted Answer

I'd strongly suggest using one. It's clearly a compound predicate, but the two "actions" are in such contrast to one another, they need to be separated in some way for clarity.
It would make perfect sense to complete the compound sentence with either verb, eliminating the other action:
He gave her the reins of a pony, and she grasped its saddle horn.
He gave her the reins of a pony, but she stood with her forehead resting against the animal's flank.

Probably "must" is too strong a word. It would not be "ungrammatical" to omit the comma.

I'd also say that if you were to repeat the subject "she" for the second verb (creating three independent clauses), the second comma would be clearly called for.
He gave her the reins of a pony, and she grasped its saddle horn, but she stood with her forehead resting against the animal's flank.

If the ideas were not contrasting, you could skip the comma, in my opinion:
He gave her the reins of a pony, and she grasped its saddle horn and stroked its mane.
He gave her a check for a thousand dollars, but she neither smiled nor thanked him.

I'm not sure if the comma is mandated by the "but."
He gave her a check for a thousand dollars, and she smiled but did not thank him.

I think it's the degree of unexpectedness in your original example that makes the comma so important.

Comma Confusion

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