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Commas Videos 2 videos
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Comma Splices 5454 Views
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Want even more deets on Comma Splices? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.
Transcript
- 00:04
Comma splices, a la Shmoop. Sundance the German shepherd is a very smart
- 00:09
dog. She knows how to make a mean latte… comma…
- 00:12
she also can solve basic math problems.
- 00:18
While that last sentence about Sundance the coffee-making, math-loving dog may sound okay…
- 00:22
…it doesn’t look okay when written out, because it’s been struck by an errant comma
Full Transcript
- 00:28
splice. A comma splice occurs when a comma is used
- 00:32
to put two independent clauses without a conjunction… together.
- 00:37
The independent clauses “She knows how to make a mean latte”…
- 00:40
…and “She can also solve basic math problems”…
- 00:43
…are actually two separate sentences. They don’t need a comma to join them…
- 00:47
…which is why the sentence “She knows how to make a mean latte…comma…she also
- 00:49
can solve basic math problems”, is grammatically incorrect.
- 00:52
Comma splices are very easy to fix. Say we have the grammatically messed-up sentence,
- 00:58
“Sundance went to the park…comma…she gave tax advice to the other dogs.”
- 01:04
If we nix the comma for a period, so that we have two sentences…
- 01:08
…“Sundance went to the park…period”…
- 01:09
…and “She gave tax advice to the other dogs…period”…
- 01:13
…then our comma splice problem is solved. There’s another way to fix a comma splice.
- 01:22
If the two independent clauses in a spliced sentence are closely related to each other…
- 01:27
…then we can ditch the comma, not for a period, but for a semicolon…
- 01:32
…because the purpose of a semicolon is to bring two complete sentences together when
- 01:35
no coordinating conjunction is present. So, for example, say we have a comma-spliced
- 01:41
sentence like, “Sundance’s owner makes Sundance breakfast every morning…comma…the
- 01:46
dog likes her eggs scrambled.”
- 01:48
The two independent clauses in this sentence deal with the same subject: Sundance’s breakfast.
- 01:56
If we replace the comma in this sentence with a semicolon, we end up with, “Sundance’s
- 02:00
owner makes Sundance breakfast every morning…semicolon…the dog likes her eggs scrambled.”
- 02:06
The comma splice is gone, replaced with an artfully deployed semicolon.
- 02:12
Or what if we have the comma-spliced sentence, “Sundance likes long walks on the beach…comma…she
- 02:18
always searches for seashells to add to her collection.”
- 02:20
Again, we have two independent clauses that are closely related to each other.
- 02:26
If we replace the comma in this sentence with a semicolon, we get, “Sundance likes long
- 02:31
walks on the beach…semicolon…she always searches for seashells to add to her collection.”
- 02:36
The comma splice is no more, eradicated by the grammatically correct semicolon.
- 02:44
Comma splices are easy to avoid. If a sentence contains two independent clauses…
- 02:48
…but has no conjunction to bring the clauses together…
- 02:51
…then a period or a semicolon is needed, not a comma.
- 02:54
Now, Sundance would like to know how we take our coffee. And would we care for a biscuit?
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