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"A markdown editor, that allows you to edit live." I see this exact grammatical tick, adding a comma where one shouldn't be after a noun clause, all the time.
by ajkjk 9y ago
"A markdown editor, that allows you to edit live."
I see this exact grammatical tick, adding a comma where one shouldn't be after a noun clause, all the time. Maybe it's native speakers of some other specific language that tend to do it? Which one?
- benschulz 9y agoI—a native German speaker—suffer the same tick. Therefore my guess would be German. Sentences like the one you quoted have a similar structure as those deconstructed in ReadsLikeGerman[1]. The "that" feels like the equivalent of "der"/"die"/"das" and I have the urge to place a comma in front of it. [1]: http://wiki.c2.com/?ReadsLikeGerman http://wiki.c2.com/?ReadsLikeGerman edit: rephrased for clarity
- brokenmachine 9y ago> I—a native German speaker It's hilarious that you had a very similar tic in this response, only with a hyphen instead of the comma... :-)
- ajkjk 9y agoBut that was a correct emdash! Not quite the same. In fact "A markdown editor -- that allows you to edit live." would be correct, though with a slightly different meaning, sorta treating the latter clause as a surprising bonus, as though you would expect the opposite if you only heard the words "a markdown editor".
- ajkjk 9y agolater: I realize that the word is actually 'tic', which is a funny error coming from someone talking about others' questionable English.