Use a comma in place of "is" or "are" or leave them out?

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1. The students are equally bright and their thoughts are equally valued.
2. The students are equally bright and their thoughts, equally valued.
3. The students are equally bright and their thoughts (are) equally valued.

Are these all acceptable?

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@perennialloner,

perennialloner wrote:

1. The students are equally bright and their thoughts are equally valued.
2. The students are equally bright and their thoughts, equally valued.
3. The students are equally bright and their thoughts (are) equally valued.

Are these all acceptable?

I am the farthest thing from an accomplished grammarian, but if you ask me, yes, they all seem acceptable. That said, #2 strikes me as an unusual construction which would not commonly be used. I think it gets the point across effectively, but it may not be grammatically correct.

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@layman,

Thanks for the reply!

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I agree with layman, and I think no. 2 would be best, with the comma left out.

1 Reply

@centrox,

centrox wrote:

I agree with layman, and I think no. 2 would be best, with the comma left out.

You like #3, in other words, eh?

I would probably just be prosaic about it and go with the mundane #1.

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@layman,

layman wrote:

You like #3, in other words, eh?

Yes.

1 Reply

@centrox,

They're all valid, tho 1 sounds the most natural, and assuming you're not actually including the parentheses if yhou go with 3.

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Thanks to everyone who replied!

Another question.

1. The students are equally bright; their thoughts equally valued.

Is this also acceptable?

1 Reply

@perennialloner,

perennialloner wrote:

Thanks to everyone who replied!

Another question.

1. The students are equally bright; their thoughts equally valued.

Is this also acceptable?

yes. A semicolon can be used between two closely related independent clauses, provided they are not already joined by a coordinating conjunction.

1 Reply

@centrox,

Thank you. What about the reverse?

The students equally bright; their thoughts are equally valued.

1 Reply

@perennialloner,

No. I think you neepd to hapve a verb actually used and understood before you csn omit it.

I

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

Will you please elaborate?

At first I thought that too, but I have a verb actually used and understood, after the semi colon? Since the two sentences don't function independently--they influence each other--don't you think it is acceptable?

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@perennialloner,

perennialloner wrote:

Will you please elaborate?

At first I thought that too, but I have a verb actually used and understood, after the semi colon? Since the two sentences don't function independently--they influence each other--don't you think it is acceptable?

No. This would work:

The students are equally bright; their thoughts equally valued.

1 Reply

@centrox,

Okay. Thanks.

0 Replies

To be implicitly understood later, the verb has to come first.

The students are equally bright; their thoughts equally valued; their clothes equally well made; their shoes equally clean.

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@perennialloner,

perennialloner wrote:

Will you please elaborate?

At first I thought that too, but I have a verb actually used and understood, after the semi colon? Since the two sentences don't function independently--they influence each other--don't you think it is acceptable?

I don't speak German, but I still find what Twain said about the language rather humorous. I agree with what other poster said about this, so this doesn't really add anything beyond a novel way of making the same point:

Quote:

“A verb has a hard enough time of it in this world when it is all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it a way over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German.”

1 Reply

@layman,

layman wrote:

I still find what Twain said about the language rather humorous.

Have you read his humorous piece about masturbation? (Yes, really.)

http://www.textfiles.com/etext/AUTHORS/TWAIN/onanism.txt

Quote:

Of all the various kinds of sexual intercourse, this has the
least to recommend it. As an amusement, it is too fleeting; as an
occupation, it is too wearing; as a public exhibition, there is no
money in it. It is unsuited to the drawing room, and in the most
cultured society it has long been banished from the social board.
It has at last, in our day of progress and improvement, been
degraded to brotherhood with flatulence. Among the best bred,
these two arts are now indulged in only private--though by consent
of the whole company, when only males are present, it is still
permissible, in good society, to remove the embargo on the
fundamental sigh.

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Use a comma in place of "is" or "are" or leave them out?

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