main clause

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The following sentence is one example of how to use a comma (source: Your Dictionary), and I really do not understand how just a comma can separate, what I think are main clauses?
Betty gets home at 5:30, she and her husband have dinner together, they watch TV for a few hours, and they go to bed around 11:00.

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@bron,

There's nothing wrong grammatically with that sentence. But I don't think it's the best way to cram so many clauses into one sentence. I'd break it up into at least two sentences:

Betty gets home at 5:30. She and her husband have dinner together. Then they watch TV for a few hours, and go to bed around 11:00.

OK, three sentences. Smile

But, again, the way you have it is technically not incorrect; it's just awkward.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Thank you for answering my question.
However, I still do not understand why my sentence (from Your Dictionary) is technically correct. I always thought that you are not able to join main clauses together with just a comma. I think it’s is called comma splice. All the clauses in my sentence have a subject and verb, and only the last clause has a coordinating conjunction to make it a subordinate clause. All the other clauses seem to be independent clauses, which makes them main clauses? Ahhhh, I really am confused!
Betty gets home at 5:30, she and her husband have dinner together, they watch TV for a few hours, and they go to bed around 11:00.

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The basic rule of English grammar is that a noun and verb is a 'complete' sentence. How any sentence is constructed is determined by the use of colons, semicolons, commas or periods. There is great leeway for their use, but keeping the sentences simple is the best rule IMHO.

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@bron,

I don't know of any rules of English grammar that would prevent you from connecting a countless number of clauses by the use of commas.

Quote:

"Assuming a sentence rises into the air with the initial capital letter and lands with a soft-ish bump at full stop, the humble comma can keep the sentence aloft all right, like this, UP, for hours if necessary, UP, like this, UP, sort-of bouncing, and then falling down, and then UP it goes again, assuming you have enough additional things to say, although in the 3end you may run out of ideas and then you have to rill along the ground with no commas at all until some sort of surface resistance takes over and you run out of steam anyway and then eventually with the help orf three dots. . . you stop."

Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves (p. 106)

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@bron,

This is a comma splice only in a the very technical sense that the clauses were needlessly structured as independent by repeating the subject. In reality, these are clauses in a series. If you avoided the redundancy, you convey the same message without the awkwardness and run-on feeling. The first sentence would best exist independently, as Lustig suggested, but even if it didn't, the following demonstrates the serial nature of the clauses:

Quote:

Betty gets home at 5:30, has dinner with her husband, watches TV with him for a few hours, and goes to bed with him around 11:00.

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@Valpower,

Thank you all for your help
cheers
Bron

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main clause

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