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XilenceCE Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Question about the adverb 'then'

'Let me finish this job, then we'll go.''Give her the letter to read, then she'll understand.'

When connecting two main clauses, aren't adverb conjuncts supposed to need a preceding semicolon to do that? (Like this one 'The cat ate a bowlful of tuna; then, to the squirrels' delight, the fat feline fell asleep in the rocking chair.')

Now there's only a comma in the first two examples. How come? Why is this?

  

Top answer

Let me finish this job ; then we'll go. Let me finish this job and then we'll go. Expressions like this that begin with "then" are normally either marked off by a semicolon or by a coordinator like "and".

— BillJ

  • Let me finish this job ; then we'll go.
  • Let me finish this job and then we'll go.
  • Expressions like this that begin with "then" are normally either marked off by a semicolon or by a coordinator like "and".
  • This is called 'anaphoric' then, though it doesn't refer to the same time as its antecedent but to a time closely following it.
  • In your example, we understand " then " to mean after that ".
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1 Answers
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Let me finish this job; then we'll go.

Let me finish this job and then we'll go.


Expressions like this that begin with "then" are normally either marked off by a semicolon or by a coordinator like "and".

This is called 'anaphoric' then, though it doesn't refer to the same time as its antecedent but to a time closely follow

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