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Ducks1160 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Punctuating conjunctions

Herman called his mother, but before she came out of the house he ran to get a better look.

Do I need to set off the prepositional phrase before she came out of the house with commas?

Herman called his mother, but, before she came out of the house, he ran to get a better look.

I could rewrite the sentence:


Herman called his mother, but he ran to get a better look before she came out of the house.

I don't want to do this because I want to place the emphasis on he ran to get a better look by placing it at the end of the sentence.
  

Top answer

Hi Ducks I'd use commas this way: - Herman called his mother, but before she came out of the house, he ran to get a better look. I think adding another comma after "but" would be more distracting than helpful to the reader.

— Yankee

  • Hi Ducks I'd use commas this way: - Herman called his mother, but before she came out of the house, he ran to get a better look.
  • I think adding another comma after "but" would be more distracting than helpful to the reader.
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2 Answers
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Hi Ducks

I'd use commas this way:

- Herman called his mother, but before she came out of the house, he ran to get a better look.

I think adding another comma after "but" would be more distracting than helpful to the reader.
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Yankee
I think adding another comma after "but" would be more distracting than helpful to the reader.


I completely agree with Amy!
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