When combining two sentences into one compound sentence, a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) are used.
Example 1: The festival was to be held today, but it was canceled because of the rainy weather. (comma and coordinating conjunction)
Sometimes writers use words such as however, furthermore, and therefore (these are called conjunctive adverbs) in place of coordinating conjunctions to combine two sentences into one. This is where a punctuation problem often arises. The mistake writers make is to incorrectly place a comma in place of a semicolon before conjunctive adverbs, as illustrated in the sentence below:
Example 2: The festival was to be held today, however, it was canceled due to the rainy weather. (comma preceding the conjunctive adverb – INCORRECT. Note: The comma following the conjunctive adverb is perfectly correct and should be left as is.)
A semicolon, rather than a comma, should precede conjunctive adverbs when they link two complete sentences. Note the corrected form of Example 2 below:
Example 3: The festival was to be held today; however, it was canceled due to the rainy weather. (semicolon preceding the conjunctive adverb – CORRECT)
Don’t be misled–there ARE situations in which it is entirely correct to use a comma before a conjunctive adverb, as in the following sentence:
Example 4: The sporting events, however, continued despite the weather.
Note that in this sentence, in contrast to the sentence in Example 3, no semicolon is needed because it is not a compound sentence.
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What about commas (punctuations) when it comes to quotations?
punctuation marks, rather than my plural version with an s. when is it appropriate to use a dash or semi-colon?
I’d like to put in a good word for *periods* in place of commas and semicolons. The humble period is very often the best choice betweens sentences that can stand well on their own—as here, for example, before the however. It’s fine to take a breath. A semicolon, conjunction, or comma often reflects the writer’s reluctance to pause.
I’m pretty sure that putting commas either side of however is wrong (,however,). I know that EVERYBODY does it and I have seen it in national newspapers, but I was always taught at school and while studying English Lit at uni that it is not correct to do this. Am trying to find the rule that explains why not. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think so. Can anyone help?
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This is clear, concise and very helpful. Thank you!
Nice, but it should be ‘owing to’, not ‘due to’. ‘Due’ is an adjective in that context, so one can say, ‘The cancellation was due to rainy weather’ or ‘It was cancelled owing to rainy weather.’
Thank you for your comment, Josh. It’s very rare that I hear “owing to” used in the context you described. It certainly isn’t a phrase I use myself. Perhaps I should have written, “…it was canceled because of the rainy weather.”
Nicely done. And absolutely correct.
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I’ve never known when to use a comma in a correct way, but it appears to be very simple! thank you for your post.
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Ahh comma splices, they are the bane of my existence.
Finally, an easy, precise explanation!
Thanks
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