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When “then” means “at that time,” it does not take a comma as it is an adverb. ...He was then on his way to becoming successful. ...I saw them and then began to wonder what would happen. If "then...

I have been on "hiatus" for a while. Actually I have been swamped for a while!! So I am back -- still swamped but back. There is a question on FB about the word "but" and whether it should have a ...

In the "olden" days, the rule was to put a comma after ANY element that came at the beginning of the sentence. Ah, the good old days! The rule today that many people get confused about is the rule...

When words like "I believe" and "I think" begin a sentence, they are functioning as the subject and verb in the sentence and take no punctuation. ...I believe he called in a little before 3:00. .....

To say that the "attorney talks in run-on's" is really not a correct statement. A run-on is created by bad punctuation. No one can "say" a run-on. Using no punctuation or a comma between two sente...

I have been asked for a little more explanation on the last post. A dependent clause is dependent because it has a word out in the front of it that "introduces" it. ...He left. (a sentence, an in...

You all know this rule: Cardinal Rule No. 1: Put a comma before a coordinate conjunction when it is followed by an independent subject and verb. But be careful of the dependent clause that LOOKS L...

Facebook had a couple of interesting questions/examples on "so." SO I thought it would be good to take a look at them. This is my answer to the questions about the word "so" in the FB sentence belo...

Another take on the word "so": In 5.210 of CMOS, "Interjections and functional variations": "... most parts of speech may be used as interjections. A word that is classified as some other part of s...