2 Remember to useapairofcommasforparenthesis.If
you forget one of the two commas, the sentence can
become difficult to read.In each of the followingpai rsof
sentences,oneis badly punctuated.Supply the missing
commas.
l a Shewas, howevertired afte r he r exped itio n.
11>Shewas,however tiredafte rhe r exped it io n, still
sm iling.
2a Po liticians have to be fair. liedth e Prime .\ Iiniste r.
ZhPo liticians huveto he fair, lied less this year.
3a Il l' toldme whe n his co mpany was going to betaken
overhya multinational,soI quicklyhoughtshares.
3bH e toldmewhenbiscompanywas goingtobe taken
overbya multinat ional.that he was drink ing too m uch.
....aJenny told the storyo fliefhusband's accid e nt , was
an gJ)'wit hhi m.
4 1>Jennytold the storyo f he r h usb and's accident , laughing
till the tearsfall£10\ 1 1 he r f ace.
B Parent hesis attheb eginningorend of asenten ce
You only need onecomma if the parenthesiscomes at
the beginning orend ofa sentence: the full stop, colon,
semicolon,question markor exclamationmark takes the
place of the othercomma.
Catherineteasth e first 10 reach the peak .!wci ll gset out
bejoredau: n.
The conceptof parenthesis and the punctuation
appropriateto it can be applied to manydifferent
grammaticalstructures.
participlephrase
.Hybroth ersb ciflgrery[ ealous,l necerincite b oy shom e,
sentence adverb
Necertheless ,lie u;asa pleasuretolice[Cult.
prepositionalphrase beginning a sentence
IIItheMuldlc A ges, A mll1ul a[co/tld haul'heel!burntasa
icitch.
Supply the necessarycommasin each of the following
sentences.
1l0wCH! r 1 decidedtospe nd theday inthemountain
refuge.
.2 \'e foundd eernearth etopofth e mountainthehighest
in Catalonia.
3 Onhea ringabo utthe de e r Fab iana d ecidedthat she
wouldclimhth emounta in.
4 1Iighill the sk)' an e agle soa redeffort le ssly enjoyi ngth e
su ns h ine.
CommasC Definingandnon-defin ingrelative cla uses
Bearing in mindthata phrase in parenthesiscan be
omitted without changing the main idea of a sentence,
note the difference in meaning betwee n the following
sentences.
1 T he girls, who went toue rohicsclasses ,fo un dthe climb
easy,
2 T he girls who wenttoaerobics classesfoundtheclim b
easv.
The main ideaof 1 isThegirls foundthe climb easy.
The main ideaof 2 isThe girls who went to aerobics
classes found the climbeasy.
In otherwords,in 1all thegirls found the climb easy,
w hereas in 2 it is onlythe girls whowent to aerobics
classes who found iteasy and the other girls didn't.
In sentence 1, the phrase'who wentto aerobics classes'
is written between commasbecauseit i s anon-defining
relativeclause: likeany phrase in parenthesis,it adds
informationbutit can be takenaway withoutchanging
the main ideaofthe sentence.
In sentence 2, t hephrase'w ho went to aerobics classes'
is w rittenw ithou tcommas because it is adefining
relative clause. It tells uswhichof the girls foundthe
climbeasy.D Sum mary
This exercise revises the use ofcommas for parenthesis.
Insert any necessary commasin the following sentences.
At leastone ofthesentences does not need a comma.
:\olyhirthdaywhichhad heg11nwithsunshinee nde d with
rain,
.2 Cleopatra He n ry's do g or ratherhitch wasanuisance
thewholedav.
3 ~orwayheinga bitco ldinJan uaryI'vedecidedto go to
Mo rocco.
4 Marionwhowasfrigh tene do r spide rs heggt'dus cryillg
to tu rnback.
5 Whaf'shap penedto thecary01luse d todrivewhe nyo u
were ill California?
6 l Ic n rv'sbrotherth edoctorwasunable tu accompanyliS
huthisbrotherth e guita rist did come.
7 Howe veroldas sheisshehase nte re d the London
M arath onagain,
8 Ill'to ldme and 1 knowY0 11 're notgo ing tolikethis afte r
allthe drin ks)'011\ '('hought himami all thee lwrgy
yo u'vep u tintoyourattemptto sell hima Jag ua r that
he 'shough t a Fiat.Writingsub-skills • 31