Oh it is SO good to have you back!!! HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The use of a comma with a conjunction is fine when one is connecting two independent clauses ( He sang well, but he often got tired.) Some writers believe that the coordinating conjunction has adequate seperation and will leave the comma out in short, balanced independent clauses. My rule has always been to simply use the comma when in doubt!
More often, a mistake is made when one puts a comma after a coordinating conjunction. Now, that does not mean that it is ALWAYS wrong but it is rare that you would need a comma after a coordinating conjunction. Of course, when speaking we often pause after the little conjunction but there is rarely a need for a comma there when writing. How's that?
_strat_ wrote:
Ive got a question on a certain part of writing in the English language here, regarding the use of the comma.
Now, IDK - I might have been doing it wrong the whole time, because Ive been following the rule that we were taught at Slovene language classes in school, which is that you can never put a comma before or after "and" when writing in Slovene. For example: "I went into the shop, and saw the Nostradamus CD" - if I translated that sentence into Slovene, I would have to ommit the comma, because of that rule.
Now, does English have this rule? I know that in some cases there is no comma, like when you list stuff: "this, that and something else" - no comma. But what about other cases? Are there times when you can put a comma near "and"?
