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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Comma usage

Thank you for your help in advance.

The sentence is:

"A number of ships were waiting at the mouth of the Cumberland River for escort, but for the time being, the only craft on the river were a few gunboats."

Question: Should there be a comma after but? (Which does not seem right)

Or:

Should the comma after being be removed? (That does not seem right either)
  

Top answer

Greetings, dear friend, I guess we have already met in one of the threads The Corpus of Contemporary American English gives 55 results for ' but for the time being ', as opposed to only 5 for ' but, for the time being' , which can be seen by some as a knock-down argument in favour of omitting the comma. Despite that, I hold that the comma in this case is necessary should you wish to display the features of a careful writer. For the time being is a transitional, non-essential element to the structure of the clause; in other words, it can be left out without affecting the general message the sentence aims to communicate.

— Andriy Lapin

  • Greetings, dear friend, I guess we have already met in one of the threads The Corpus of Contemporary American English gives 55 results for ' but for the time being ', as opposed to only 5 for ' but, for the time being' , which can be seen by some as a knock-down argument in favour of omitting the comma.
  • Despite that, I hold that the comma in this case is necessary should you wish to display the features of a careful writer.
  • For the time being is a transitional, non-essential element to the structure of the clause; in other words, it can be left out without affecting the general message the sentence aims to communicate.
  • In this case the fore-and-aft positioning of commas is a desired choice, no less and no more.
  • Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff
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3 Answers
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Greetings, dear friend,

I guess we have already met in one of the threads Emotion: smile The Corpus of Contemporary American English giv
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Just a brief remark:
AnonymousQuestion: Should there be a comma after but? (Which does not seem right) - possible, but regarded as mauvais ton by some; I would retain it, especially in careful writing;

Or:

Should the comma after being be removed? (That does not seem right either) -
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Should there be a comma after etc?
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