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Fri 5 Feb, 2016 03:09 pm
When I have an adverb preceding two independent clauses (i.e., clauses that include subject and predicate) and the adverb relates to both clauses, should I use a comma between the independent clauses? For example:
"Yesterday was a tough day. Therefore, I woke up late, and he didn't wake up at all."
or
"Yesterday was a tough day. Therefore, I woke up late and he didn't wake up at all."
My feeling is that I should not use a comma in this type of situation because "I woke up late" and "he didn't wake up at all" are part of a list of things that the "therefore" introduces and, because this list only has two elements, no comma is needed.
I look forward to hear from the experts!
@lance101,
You are right. A comma before the "and" in the sentence is superfluous.
I woke up late and he didn't wake up at all."
Compound sentence.
Your "adverb" had nothing to do with the comma.
@PUNKEY,
I agree that "I woke up late and he didn't wake up at all." is a compound sentence (i.e., a sentence composed of two independent clauses). But what I have read online is that generally this means that you need to add a comma before the conjunction (in this case "and").
See for example:
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/compound-sentence-examples.html
or
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000069.htm
or
http://grammar-monster.com/glossary/compound_sentence.htm
@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue,
I also feel the same way as you.. but do you say that just because the two independent clauses are relatively short?
If instead they were:
Therefore, I woke up late in my house with a headache and he didn't wake up at all from his deep sleep.
Would you still think that no comma was needed?
@lance101,
Those are outdated punctuation conventions. The word "and" is all that is necessary to join the two independent clauses.
I'd use commas before the words "but," "or" and "yet," however.
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