![]() And yes, opens in a new windowyou can start a sentence with the word because when it’s the start of a subordinate clause. Now you can join them with a comma because one clause is a main clause and the other is a subordinate clause. I could writeīecause Squiggly ran into the forest to hide, Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone. For example, you can make one of the main clauses a opens in a new windowsubordinate clause. ![]() That’s pretty standard, but you can also fix comma splices other ways too. Our comma splice repair kit includes opens in a new windowperiods, opens in a new windowsemicolons, and coordinating conjunctions. Turn a Main Clause into a Subordinate Clause Squiggly ran into the forest to hide, and Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone. If I go back to the original sentence with a comma splice- Squiggly ran into the forest to hide, Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone-you can see that it makes sense to connect those two sentences with a coordinating conjunction and a comma. You can also opens in a new windowusually fix a comma splice by adding a coordinating conjunction. How to Use Coordinating Conjunctions to Fix a Comma Splice You can think of a semicolon as a “sentence splicer” because its job is to splice complete sentences together. (Want more? See Episode 189, opens in a new windowHow to Use Semicolons.) Aardvark knows he has to fight the peeves alone because Squiggly has run off into the forest and is going to be useless. The semicolon makes sense because the second clause is related to the first clause. Squiggly ran into the forest to hide Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone. For example, if we imagine that Squiggly and Aardvark were in the woods when their campsite was attacked by monsters called peeves and we’re describing our two characters’ reaction to the attack, you can opens in a new windowuse a semicolon to connect the two parts without a coordinating conjunction. ![]() If the two sentences are closely related to each other, you can use semicolon to fix a comma splice. How to Use a Semicolon to Fix a Comma Splice It is a period’s job to separate complete sentences. Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone. For example, because the two clauses are complete sentences by themselves, you can treat them that way and opens in a new windowuse a period where you had a comma. The good news is that it’s easy to fix the problem. It’s easy to see in that example why the error is called a comma splice because I’m using a comma to splice together two complete sentences when that isn’t a comma’s job.Ĭommas aren’t meant to join main clauses all by themselves when you force them into that role, you make an error called a comma splice. Squiggly ran into the forest to hide, Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone. ![]() If you just put a comma between them without a conjunction, that’s an error called a comma splice or a comma fault. To join them with a comma, you need the word and or some other coordinating conjunction. Squiggly ran into the forest to hide is a complete sentence, and Aardvark realized he’d have to fight the peeves alone is also a complete sentence. ![]() That just means that when you join two things that could be sentences on their own with a word such as and, but, or or, you need a comma before the conjunction. Opens in a new windowCommas are always tricky because there are so many different ways you can use them, but one of the most common ways to use commas is to separate two main clauses that are connected by a coordinating conjunction. ![]()
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