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JJDouglas Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Confusion over parenthetical phrase
"It is thought that, by 2020, there will be more electric cars on the road than petrol and diesel cars."
Should "by 2020" be a parenthetical phrase, or is it wrong to have it like this? It looks nicer to me, and I'm sure I've seen many other writers put dates and time frames as non-essential information. But as far as meaning goes, in this example, I think essential to the sentence.
Should "by 2020" be a parenthetical phrase, or is it wrong to have it like this? It looks nicer to me, and I'm sure I've seen many other writers put dates and time frames as non-essential information. But as far as meaning goes, in this example, I think essential to the sentence.
Top answer
You need to delete the comma. Then it will be fine.
- You need to delete the comma.
- Then it will be fine.
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4 Answers
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My opinion is that you need both commas or neither. In my view it does not work with one comma (whichever one).
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Sorry, I meant you should delete both comas.
'By 2020' seems an integral part of what is being said, ie not parenthetical.
'By 2020' seems an integral part of what is being said, ie not parenthetical.
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