As we’ve seen in earlier posts on this subject, commas may be very complicated.
A part of the issue is that there’s a lot of dangerous recommendation on the market. Some folks counsel including a comma everytime you would pause whereas talking.
Though this feels like a good suggestion, it could lead to sentences which can be ungrammatical and which can even say the other of what you propose.
One factor that may assistance is to do not forget that the primary goal of a comma is to make clear the meaning of a sentence.
Because of this normally you may ask your self if including or eradicating a comma will change what a sentence says to work out whether or not you’re probably to want one.
On this publish, we’ll stroll you thru how to work out whether or not or not you want a comma before “the place.”
When do you want a comma before “the place”?
The place is a relative pronoun, or a phrase that exhibits some sort of relationship between the primary clause of a sentence and its subordinate, relative clause.
Though “the place” can present up in a bewildering number of locations, there’s a reasonably easy rule you should use to test whether or not or not you want to put a comma first.
First, cowl the clause that follows “the place” together with your thumb or in any other case conceal it. If the sentence now not is smart, you shouldn’t add a comma before “the place.”
If the sentence’s meaning doesn’t change when the relative clause starting with “the place” is gone, you do want a comma.
“The place” and relative clauses
As a result of “the place” is a relative pronoun, the primary rule which governs comma utilization is the rule for relative clauses.
Clauses are best regarded as the components a sentence may be damaged down into.
The core of every clause is a verb or motion phrase, usually accompanied by a topic or object.
The phrase “the place” is used at first of a particular sort of clause referred to as a relative clause.
Once you want a comma before “the place”
The important thing to understanding commas right here is to work out whether or not the clause starting with “the place” accommodates data that’s important or nonessential to make sense of the entire sentence.
Briefly, you solely want to use a comma before “the place” if the knowledge that follows it isn’t important to correct understanding of the entire sentence.
This usually implies that the relative clause provides context or extra data that may not lead folks astray if it have been absent from the sentence.
Examples:
“I went to the library, the place I borrowed a e book.”
“My brother lived in Puerto Rico, the place he researched cave spiders, for 5 years within the Nineteen Nineties.”
The knowledge in each clauses starting with “the place” within the sentences above is just not important to understanding. As a result of they comprise nonessential data, you want to set them off from the sentence with a comma before “the place.”
Notice that the relative clause doesn’t have to seem on the finish of a sentence. Because the second instance right here exhibits, it could additionally come in the course of the primary clause. On this case, you want to make certain to add a comma on the finish of the clause as properly.
Once you don’t want a comma with “the place”
In distinction, if the knowledge within the relative clause that follows “the place” is totally important to the sentence, you shouldn’t place a comma in entrance of it.
Examples:
“I went to the library the place I borrowed a e book.”
“The astronaut landed on the moon of Saturn the place she had parked her spaceship.”
In these examples, the knowledge that follows “the place” is crucial to understanding the sentence.
Saturn, as an example, has at the least 82 moons. This implies we’d like to know which moon the astronaut landed on.
Likewise, there could also be any number of libraries the speaker of the primary sentence may go to, and the shortage of comma clues readers into which particular library.
Briefly, the shortage of a comma before “the place” tells readers that what comes subsequent will present particulars they can not skip.
“The place” and restrictive clauses
You would possibly discover that the instance about libraries is utilized in each sections above with the one distinction being the inclusion of a comma.
In case you’re attempting to work out if you happen to want a comma primarily based solely on the phrase you utilize, that may seem to be a nightmare.
In reality, this drawback makes it clear that you simply want to perceive the grammar behind the phrase you’re utilizing, somewhat than memorize arbitrary rule.
In our library sentence, the true distinction is within the meaning of the relative clause “the place I borrowed a e book.”
Clauses can typically be what is named a “restrictive clause,” meaning it serves to inform the distinction between one factor and all the opposite issues prefer it.
If a clause is just not restrictive, then again, it’s most frequently offering contextual details about one thing else within the sentence.
As we’ve got seen with our library sentence, including a comma modifications the meaning of the sentence significantly.
Let’s look somewhat extra carefully on the distinction in meaning, and how the comma modifications issues.
Instance:
“I went to the library the place I borrowed a e book.”
This sentence is an instance of a restrictive clause. In different phrases, “the place I borrowed the e book” identifies which particular library the speaker visited.
There may be any number of different libraries that could possibly be confused with the particular library to which the speaker is referring.
As a result of eradicating the relative clause would change the meaning of the primary clause (you may’t inform which library with out that data), you shouldn’t add a comma.
“I went to the library, the place I borrowed a e book.”
This sentence is just not a restrictive clause. “the place I borrowed a e book” doesn’t determine a particular library, however describes what the speaker did upon arriving on the library.
Though we nonetheless may not know which library the speaker went to, it doesn’t change the primary level of the sentence, which is simply that the speaker did go to the library.
In different phrases, as a result of eradicating the relative clause wouldn’t change the meaning of the primary clause you do want to add a comma before “the place” on this sentence.
In case you nonetheless end up getting confused about commas and the phrase “the place,” simply keep in mind the next primary rule: Don’t add a comma before “the place” except what follows it isn’t important data.
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