4 ms·

Grammar police warning: The comma in “if it doesn’t crash, the bug is present” actually makes the intention more difficult to understand.

• johnday 9y ago
  How?
• kazinator 9y ago
  The comma placement "if clause1, clause2" is extremely common. In the above sentence, there is no other place it can go, other than nowhere at all. "if, it doesn't crash ..." nope "if it, doesn't ..." nope "if it doesn't, crash ... " nope "if it doesn't crash, the " yep! "if it doesn't crash the, bug ..." nope "if it doesn't crash the bug, is ..." nope "if it doesn't crash the bug is, present" nope. When it is present, it does help to separate the if and then, particularly in the absence of the word "then". Without the comma, the prefix "if it doesn't crash the bug" can be scanned as a viable clause, only to find that the suffix becomes a fragment.
  • sova 9y ago
    You brute-forced comma placement. I tip, to you, my hat.
  • ralphie02 9y ago
    Thank you for this and everyone who has downvoted an incorrect and misleading statement
• CiPHPerCoder 9y ago
  "If x, y" is a shorthand for "If x then y" in spoken language.
• caseymarquis 9y ago
  That's the grammatically correct place to put the comma. Fairly sure you're actually grammatically required to have a comma there.