1 or 2 below? Please note the placement of the commas.
-
John went to the movies, and, quite frankly, he was bored.
-
John went to the movies, and quite frankly, he was bored.
Neither.
John went to the movies and, quite frankly, he was bored.
This is also correct: John went to the movies, and, quite frankly, he was bored.
‘Quite frankly’ is a parenthetical interrupter; hence, commas are used to set off ‘quite frankly’.
Omit the parenthetical interrupter ‘quite frankly’ and you have:
John went to the movies, and he was bored. [Two independent clauses separated by the coordinating conjunction ‘and’.]
‘John went to the movies’ = independent clause
‘and’ = coordinating conjunction
‘quite frankly’ = parenthetical interrupter
‘he was bored’ = independent clause
But if the sentence has one independent clause at the beginning and a dependent clause at the end, one of the commas is omitted:
John went to the movies and, quite frankly, was bored.
[John went to the movies and was bored.]
There is no comma after ‘movies’ in this sentence because of the aforementioned explanation.
goronsky
John went to the movies [color=red]and, quite frankly, he was bored.
John went to the movies, [color=red]and, quite frankly, he was bored.
I think the second sentence is better. The clause followed by [color=red]and is short.
uottawa.ca/academic/arts/wri … html#comma
Comma Usage
- Use a comma before a co-ordinating conjunction that joins independent clauses (unless the independent clauses are very short):
- I wrapped the fresh fish in three layers of newspaper, but my van still smelled like trout for the next week. (commas with two independent clauses)
- She invited him to her party and he accepted. (comma unnecessary with short clauses)
understand that grammatically it’s correct, but it is ‘clunky’ and unnecessary. The streamlined version is fine, especially bearing in mind that the original post didn’t ask which was actually grammatically correct.
John went to the movies and he was bored. Would you put a comma between the clauses here?
If not, then you don’t need one after ‘movies’ in the sentence with the additional phrase, You just need to separate the additional information from the other clauses:
John went to the movies and he was bored.
John went to the movies and, quite frankly, he was bored.
Hi B,
I made a mistake.
I wanted to say: I think the [color=red]first sentence is better.
Sorry.
That explains things, Tofu. I thought that your answer was unusual for you.
If the sentence were longer, would these be correct as well? Good to both sentences below? Notice the comma placement in both?
**If we have a dependent and independent clause after the parenthetical interrupter, it doesn’t affect the comma placement in each below, does it? Are sentences 1 and 2 correctly punctuated below?
-
John went to the movies with his sisters on Saturday night and, quite frankly, he was bored.
-
John went to the movies with his sisters on Saturday night and, quite frankly, was bored.
Yes. Those are okay.
I’d prefer (1) here because the use of the masculine pronoun brings the final phrase closer to the person referred to. It adds to the readability.
However, imagine this scenario…
Janet went to the movies with her sister on Saturday night and, quite frankly, she was bored.
Although it is no different in structure to your sentences, I would avoid using this phrasing, not because it is incorrect, but because it could lead to confusion. Who was bored? Janet or her sister.
In this case, I would use the structure of (2)
Janet went to the movies with her sister on Saturday night and, quite frankly, was bored.
All this isn’t a hard and fast rule - just my personal preferences.
Oh, the delights of English!
Agree with people who choose 1.
Just remember that people have pretty short attention spans nowadays. Using “he” after the parenthetical expression reminds the reader that the sentence is about John.
My two cents,
Phil
All well and good when the clauses are short as in John went to the movies and, quite frankly, he was bored.
But what about if both clauses are longer and a comma is called for ordinarily? what do we do with the interrupter then?
ex. John went to the movie at the drive-in theater, and, quite frankly, he was both bored and sleepy because the film was rather slow.
or should it be
John went to the movie at the drive-in theater, and quite frankly, he was both bored and sleepy because the film was rather slow.
You can’t get away with dropping the comma before the coordinating conjunction when the clauses are longer.
What say ye?
How would you write this sentence below regarding usage of commas?
They were trapped for four days but none the less they survived.
Thanks
They were trapped for four days but nonetheless they survived.
They were trapped for four days, but nonetheless they survived.
Both are acceptable according to some scholars.