Pause for breath and pause for change in the flow of thought
Most people put a comma in places within a
sentence where a speaker would naturally pause. That would be right 90% of the
time. The problem is, it would be wrong 10% of the time. A comma signals a
change in the flow of thought within a sentence. However, sometimes we pause
for breath. It is correct to put a comma in a sentence only where the flow of
thought would change. It is not correct to put a comma in a sentence where the
pause is only for a breath of air. See the sentence below.
Men who try to lead a double life
always come to grief in the end.
Did you want to put
a comma after “life”? There is a pause there, but there is no change in the
flow of thought. If we try to take “who try to lead a double life” out of the
sentence, we would change the meaning of the sentence drastically. It would be
wrong to put a comma after “life.”
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