Comma Usage with 'So'

Question

Which of the following is the most grammatically correct?

a) I wasn't enjoying the film, so I left half-way through it. b) I wasn't enjoying the film; so I left half-way through it. c) I wasn't enjoying the film; so, I left half-way through it.

Usenet · Accepted Answer

Cool Guy wrote on 15 May 2005:
[nq:1]Which of the following is the most grammatically correct? a) I wasn't enjoying the film, so I left half-way through it. b) I wasn't enjoying the film; so I left half-way through it. c) I wasn't enjoying the film; so, I left half-way through it.[/nq]
The first is the norm for this informal usage. The third requires that "so" be replaced with "therefore", and the second is a *** no one would want to claim.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
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"*** is a concept by which we measure our pain".
John Lennon (1970)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Which of the following is the most grammatically correct? a) I wasn't enjoying the film, so I left half-way through it. b) I wasn't enjoying the film; so I left half-way through it. c) I wasn't enjoying the film; so, I left half-way through it.[/nq]
So you went to see "Elvira Madigan" too.

Tony Cooper
Orlando FL

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Which of the following is the most grammatically correct? a) I wasn't enjoying the film, so I left half-way through it. b) I wasn't enjoying the film; so I left half-way through it. c) I wasn't enjoying the film; so, I left half-way through it.[/nq]
There's a wide range of idiomatic ways to express the thought (e.g., The movie was a piece of *** so we left half way through (note the first verb tense, no comma, no hyphen, and no 'it')).

But, to try to answer your question as it is put, (a) is probably best. Very few people would use a semi-colon, very few would hyphenate half way although it's probably correct, very few would use a comma after so, and very few would use so after a semi-colon. But, depending on now you use 'grammatically' and 'correct,' they're probably all grammatically correct and non-idiomatic. Others may disagree.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Very few people would . . . hyphenate half way[/nq]
Indeed: halfway has been solid for decades.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Which of the following is the most grammatically correct? a) ... wasn't enjoying the film; so, I left half-way through it.[/nq]
[nq:1]There's a wide range of idiomatic ways to express the thought (e.g., The movie was a piece of *** so we left half way through (note the first verb tense, no comma, no hyphen, and no 'it')).[/nq]
As there are two independent couses there, the comma is optional, depending on whether you think the clauses are short or not so short. I would use a comma. I was not taught a "short clause" rule.
[nq:1]But, to try to answer your question as it is put, (a) is probably best. Very few people would use ... semi-colon. But, depending on now you use 'grammatically' and 'correct,' they're probably all grammatically correct and non-idiomatic. Others may disagree.[/nq]
The adverb "halfway" is a single word. The semicolon (also a single word) with the above sentence construction is not proper.

That is my opinion.

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

Comma Usage with 'So'

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