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JJDouglas Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Imperatives
"Don't worry, we'll find him."
As "Don't worry" has the implied subject of "you", does that make it independent? And therefore, is the above quotation two independent clauses that need to be separated by a full stop?
Is it the same with all imperatives? Are they all independent?
As "Don't worry" has the implied subject of "you", does that make it independent? And therefore, is the above quotation two independent clauses that need to be separated by a full stop?
Is it the same with all imperatives? Are they all independent?
Top answer
Yes - imperatives are independent. g. " You're right that the two clauses are independent and so a comma between them is wrong.
- Yes - imperatives are independent.
- g.
- " You're right that the two clauses are independent and so a comma between them is wrong.
- The clauses are short and the context is informal; as a result, many native speakers would be unlikely to pause to consider it a mistake, or make an issue about it.
- The best punctuation in my view would be "-" because it suits informal speech.
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7 Answers
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Yes - imperatives are independent. You can have a one word sentence with an imperative e.g. "Stop!"
You're right that the two clauses are independent and so a comma between them is wrong. The clauses are short and the context is informal; as a result, many native speakers would be unlikely to pause to consider it a mistake, or make an issue about it.
The best punctuation in my
You're right that the two clauses are independent and so a comma between them is wrong. The clauses are short and the context is informal; as a result, many native speakers would be unlikely to pause to consider it a mistake, or make an issue about it.
The best punctuation in my
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Thank you, Michael, for your reply.
I haven't fully read up on the use of dashes, but I'm assuming that it is perfectly acceptable to set off fully independent clauses within them?
Also, to extend the question a bit further: Do the following count as imperatives?
"There is no need to worry"—Is this sentence an imperative? Or does it have a subject? Can "There" act as a
I haven't fully read up on the use of dashes, but I'm assuming that it is perfectly acceptable to set off fully independent clauses within them?
Also, to extend the question a bit further: Do the following count as imperatives?
"There is no need to worry"—Is this sentence an imperative? Or does it have a subject? Can "There" act as a
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JJDouglas"There is no need to worry"—Is this sentence an imperative? Or does it have a subject? Can "There" act as a subject?That is not an imperative. There are arguments for claiming that 'there' is the grammatical subject. Some would claim that the true subject is 'No need (to worry) ', the 'core' sentence being "No need to worry is (= exists).
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In your first sentence, "is" is the present simple. There is no imperative. "There" is the subject. I am not sure exactly how to describe it but it acts as a subject with the verb "to be" to introduce new information impersonally.
The second is a fragment, as you say, which is missing "there is".
Imperatives are generally only the base form of the verb, with "don't" or "do not"
The second is a fragment, as you say, which is missing "there is".
Imperatives are generally only the base form of the verb, with "don't" or "do not"
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Ok - I've just seen this. I didn't know about this controversy. In the context of EFL teaching, perhaps it is more helpful to consider "there" as the subject but I appreciate there are other ways to look at the issue.
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Thank you both for the replies.
Yeah, the arguments around "need" being a subject were what threw me a bit.
So going with the idea that "no need to worry" is a sentence fragment, does the following feature the correct punctuation? (Sorry to keep bombarding you with questions, by the way )
"The computer works fine, no need to worry about it crashing or anything, but it m
Yeah, the arguments around "need" being a subject were what threw me a bit.
So going with the idea that "no need to worry" is a sentence fragment, does the following feature the correct punctuation? (Sorry to keep bombarding you with questions, by the way )
"The computer works fine, no need to worry about it crashing or anything, but it m
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No - "there is" is implied before "no need" and so the punctuation should reflect the text as though the omitted words were included. Dash "-" is again best in my view because of the informality.
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