Commas prevent misreading: “Inside, the room was freezing” is clearer than “Inside the room was freezing”.
Use paired commas for interruptions (He was, I believe, the first to arrive) and contrasts (It was the coach, not the players, who complained).
Never join two independent clauses with only a comma. “The bridge was closed, therefore we took the ferry” is a comma splice; use a semicolon: “The bridge was closed; therefore, we took the ferry.”
Worked example
Add commas: “It was the weather not the cost that stopped us.”
- Not the cost is a contrasting phrase.
- Wrap it in a pair of commas.
Answer:It was the weather, not the cost, that stopped us.
Key words
- ambiguity
- more than one possible meaning
- interruption
- words that break into a sentence
- comma splice
- two clauses joined only by a comma
Practise this
New questions every time.
Common Core-referenced: L.9-10.2