Punctuation
1.1 Commas:verband object
Don'tputacommab etweentheverband its
object, e ven whenth e objectis anounclause.
Ve rb+o bject I hareforgotten1111)chthlhood,
Ve rb+nounclause I hare forgoNellichat.
l iconde rif...
Icannotacceptthat.
I ic ish su meone (could.
Verb+two objects I told the captainschat Ithought.
I told the captainthat...A Taking care not to separate theverb from its object,add
any commas that maybe necessary in the following
sentences.
I askedhe r whattimehe r motherexpected he rhom e.
2 I couldn't pe rsuade himto tellme whe n he had sta rted
to ind ulgein this habi t.
3 I to ld herto simplify mattersthatI wasthe hoss.
-4 T here wasnowaywecou ld havegue ssed whowas goi ng
to he atth e party.
BThe rol e of punctuationis to make written English
easyto read, and tomakethe meaningabsolutelyclear.
In thefollowing exercisewe see how poorpunctuation
can leadto amb iguityand misunderstandings.
In each of thefollowingpairs of sentences, one of the
sentences is well punctuated, while the otherneeds one
or two commas: addthose commas.
l a Shepromisedto leaveth e hallbefore midnight.
1hShepromisedto keep hermotherhappv to le aveth e
bull be foreIlli<lnight.
2a If oulv \'(HI'd told Hel e n shewo uld he welc o me!
2b If on I\' vou'd to ldHel en shewo uld n't havebeen
shocke d whe n she sawit.
3a She askedme to cuta lo ng storysho rt to mendhe r car.
3 b She askedme todevotemywholeweekend to working
on the engineofhe rSe at 1 27 ,
-la l cun't re me mberwhet he r wedr ank fivebottle so r six.
-lhI call remembe r whe ther vou can o r not.
Sa Itwas she whochose whic hwasunusual for he r.
5h ItW"L'ishewhochose whichfilm we we nttose e.
32 • Writing sub-skills1.2 Commas:verbandsubject
Don 'tputacommabetweenth e subj ect andthe
verb, whetherthe subjectis a single wordor a long
noun phrase. In the followingexamples,thesubject is
in bold.
Da ncingexcites me.
The onl ythingI haceforgo tten isfum;itends.
The lcaysomeofh erb eststuden tsspoiledth eir
writingandconf used theirreadersbyfailing to
punctuateproperly(ca s a terrible (corry to .\liss Brodie.A In each of the followingpairs of sentences ,one of the
sentencesis correctly punct uated, for thereason given
above.The othersentence is i ncorrectly punctuated, and
requiresonecomma. Decid e whichsentence is incorrectly
punctuated ,and addthemissing comma.
l a" 'h e n he starte dto playpolo was when Kat e sto pped
100i ng him.
IbWbe n be starte dto playpolo Kate sto pped Imiog him.
Za Whetheror notyo u'regoing doesn 'tinte res t me at all.
2 1>Whetheror notyo u'regoingI certainly am.
3 <\ \ Vhe rethere usedtohe afactor )'1I0 Wth e re werefie ld s
of wild flowe rs.
3 h Whe relarge su ms 0 1"mooeyehaogehands is where
lawye rs areto hefouml.BRevisi on
Addanycomm as that may be necessary.
1 Wasn't it Chu rchillwho saidtha t powercorru pts and
absolu te powercorm p ts absolutclv?
2 Manvofthe stude ntsamIthe ir friends andsuppo rte rs
were sho tatby th e policewholaterclaimedth atthey
wereo nl yobe~ingo rd e rs.
3 ~Iyyo ungest siste rwhowas a haby d uring the time I
spe nt inthe' Ho nse of the Hisin g Sun' was stro ngly
advis ednot t o do what I had done.
-I A large numberof fairly succe ssfultrials had already
been comple ted with labo ratory animals be fo re any
cha nge in the hehavtourof theprofessor whowas
re sponsible for the project was noted.