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Standard English Conventions Videos 41 videos

SAT Writing and Language Drill 7.1 Sentence Structure
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Where Does the Comma Go? 13 Views


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Description:

Where does the comma go? Before "which", you always need one. Except in this example. Non-restrictive clauses are almost always set off with commas. Freakin' commas.


Transcript

00:03

okay SAT writing shmoopers eight of

00:06

eleven here....[mumbling]

00:17

focused right there on the underlying

00:20

part dinner which was beef stew alright

00:23

where did that come from all right so

00:25

let's cruise through the document here

00:27

and finally after two and a half busy [finger following sentence]

00:30

exhilarating hours it was time to go

00:31

they climbed back in the Eagle stowed

00:34

the rocks and prepared the ship for

00:36

departure then it was time for dinner

00:38

which was beef stew and by the way

00:42

people we're gonna point out one thing

00:43

here that relates to a previous question

00:44

here notice that they say they climbed

00:47

back in the Eagle stowed to the rocks

00:50

not stowed away the rocks and stowed the

00:53

rock so it's interesting that they used

00:54

correct grammar here whereas they didn't

00:57

in the question they actually drove

00:59

before so sometimes they give you a

01:01

little gifts like that all right back to

01:04

regularly-scheduled the commercial

01:06

programming so then it was time for

01:07

dinner which was beef stew and we're

01:09

clearly missing something here what do

01:11

you think that is well after a long day [astronaut walks back to spacecraft]

01:13

of moonwalking nothing sounds better

01:15

than a nice warm cup of beef stew we've

01:18

never been to the moon so that's

01:19

speculation but what we do know is the [beef stew appears]

01:22

meaning of the clause which was beefs do

01:25

is non restrictive meaning it's non

01:28

essential to the meaning of the sentence

01:30

you could cut it out and the sentence

01:31

would still live like if it were deleted

01:34

just go well then it was time for dinner

01:36

yeah it could stand alone like the

01:38

cheese as a sentence non-restrictive

01:40

clauses are usually set off with commas

01:43

and almost always before which you need

01:46

one so the answer there is dinner comma

01:48

which was beef stew let's look at the

01:50

loser bowl here yes are you guys knowing [person holding a loser bowl]

01:53

that dinner consisted of yummy stew

01:54

isn't essential to the sentence so we

01:56

know a comma is necessary so we know

01:58

there's a change

01:59

however the non restrictive clause only

02:01

needs to be separated from the rest of

02:02

the sentence no need to chop it up with

02:04

further punctuation so

02:05

see if a came before dinner in the

02:08

original sentence dinner of beef stew [vegetables appear]

02:11

would work but we plug it into the

02:13

sentences written while it reads then it

02:15

was time for dinner of beef stew which

02:18

may work in some old-timey flowery weird

02:20

British language kinda way the past

02:22

but sounds totally out of place in the

02:25

context and tone of this essay so that's

02:27

it it's dinner , and chow down

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