Comma or no comma?

Question

1) The season springs into action when the weather warms and winds up in the chill of the fall.

OR

2) The season springs into action when the weather warms, and winds up in the chill of the fall.

- My wife and I have a differing opinion as to which one of these is grammatically correct. Can anyone help clear this up?

GPY · Accepted Answer

Todd Jones2) The season springs into action when the weather warms, and winds up in the chill of the fall.

To me, this one is easier to read. You could also consider saying "..., and it winds up ...".

CalifJim · Answer

No new subject — no comma before 'and'.

The season springs into action when {the weather warms and [no explicit subject here; 'weather' is still the subject] winds up in the chill of the fall}.

That aside, the content of the sentence is perplexing.

Springing into action is a one-time act; it isn't a series of events over a period of time. It seems to me that when something "springs into action" it doesn't normally do two contradictory things (warming, then chilling).

It's possible, however, that you are parsing the sentence differently and haven't be able to make that clear by the way you've constructed the sentence.

In fact, the more I read it, the more I think you mean something like this:

The season springs into action when the weather warms, and it bows out when the weather cools.

If you don't keep the components parallel, sometimes the meaning gets lost.

CJ

Comma or no comma?

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