Eats, Shoots & Leaves Question

The comma makes the second incorrect.
I am not sure about river-bank being hyphenated.

Hi,

Yeah, I agree it ought to be riverbank, or at least that is how I spell it. That wasn't the main thrust of the question. Let's see what other members have to say, and then I'll provide my commentary from reading "Eats, Shoots & Leaves".

MountainHiker

Hello MH

I would say that the first version implies some swimming on the part of the vehicle, whereas the comma in the second version makes it clear that it was in fact the driver who swam.

MrP

As the driver managed to undertake two actions, escape and swim, would it not be better to write:

"The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank, and swim to the river bank

Would like to know your opinion MH.
NON C

Number one sounds like the car swam for it.

Number two makes it clear that the driver swam. I would have said this was correct but non-con makes an interesting point. Perhaps ' The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank, and to swim to the river bank.'

'The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank, and (to) swim to the river bank.'

Hmm. Does this version imply that the swimming to the bank took place before the vehicle sank, I wonder?

This is where we could use some accompanying video footage.

MrP

Hi All,

Are either of these two following sentences correct?

1) The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river-bank.

2) The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank, and swam to the river-bank.

MrPedantic and Nona the brit get gold stars. According to the book "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" on

I also have a question to which I don't know the answer:

Why should there be a comma in example 4?

She earned high marks and was a good student. What's wrong with that?

Please help me out. Thanks!

julielai,

She earned high marks and was a good student. What's wrong with that?

Your example is fine. I sometimes see people putting a comma before the and. So I just want to better understand how this "comma feature" works in the book's example.

MountainHiker

My understanding is the same as yours, MH. Coordinate clauses when fully expressed should be separated by a comma:

'She earned high marks, and she was a good student.'

When the coordinate clauses are not fully expressed and share a subject, no comma is necessary:

'She earned high marks and was a good student.'

In the original sentence, however, where a subo