Here Comes Subby-Clause…

By Fidget

When one uses a subordinate clause,

Put a comma after the phrase because:

One's incomplete,

The other replete,

If SC's in the middle, a comma's faux paus.

(A basic list of subordinate clauses: when, while, since, before, after, until, once, where, wherever, because, since, as, now that, if, unless, on condition that, although, even though, despite, in spite of, while, where, whereas, that, which, who, whoever, whom, what, why, how

I'm going to borrow a wonderful strategy that my 7th grade teacher used to teach us how to punctuate sentences. Take this example:

When she opened the door, a penguin tumbled out.

When is a subordinate clause, or SC...

...using it makes she opened the door a dependant clause, or D.

a penguin tumbled out is an independent clause, or I.

Combine them together, comma included, and you get SCD, I.

But what about this sentence?

A penguin tumbled out when she opened the door.

It's using a subordinate clause, right, so why is there no comma? The subordinate clause is used in the middle of the sentence, and it's connecting two complete sentences. No comma is needed.

Questions? Comments? Corrections? E-mail me at missthiss@hotmail.com or contact me on the Golden Pen forum.)