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I intend this with kindness: normally I don’t nitpick on grammar and punctuation, but you’ve got a repeated error here that’s easily corrected. Generally, you w
by Arubis 6y ago
I intend this with kindness: normally I don’t nitpick on grammar and punctuation, but you’ve got a repeated error here that’s easily corrected. Generally, you want to break your sentences with commas _before_ usage of “but”: “He wanted to buy a pen, but the store had run out.”
If you’re a native speaker, the comma goes where you’d naturally have a brief pause in speech.
If you’re not a native speaker, it may be helpful to remember that the clause with “but” should be able to be removed & what remains should still be a valid sentence: “He wanted to buy a pen.”, not “He wanted to buy a pen but.”
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoI read this as a poetic choice by GP—it evoked Apple's "Think different" tagline in my mind, although now I'm not actually sure why. I could be wrong though!
- joshiee 6y agoto me it's plainly wrong for a comma. but I also don't like to color outside the box. perhaps an ellipses would've been ok.
- bigwavedave 6y agoDon't worry, your instincts are correct. The only time a comma should follow a conjunction is if there is an interrupting phrase that breaks up the sentence. Example: "He's a nice guy but, to be honest, he smells like a hippopotamus."
- gabereiser 6y agoI learn so much from grammar folks. :D
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- wruza 6y agoIf you’re a native speaker, the comma goes where you’d naturally have a brief pause in speech. Some speech styles use pause after "but". You can hear it from news reporters and on tv shows in general, when actors read partial sentences from paper or screen. It is not exclusive to english, and it is a common mistake to use punctuation with respect to own/technical intonations and delays instead of correct ones. "X but, Y" likely means "X, but... Y" here, i.e. the first pause is much less pronounced than the second.
- bayindirh 6y agoHey, thanks for your comment. There are no hard feelings and I really appreciate that. I'm not a native speaker but, I try to write and talk as correctly as possible. I used to put commas before, however some grammar checking tools like grammarly marked them as wrong, and I changed my ways. Comma rules are complex in both in my native language and English and a good, definitive guide would be really helpful. Thanks for your comment again.