Where to place commas in a sentence

When was the last time you were confused about where to place commas in a sentence? It probably wasn’t that long ago. That’s because commas are tricky things. They can play so many different roles in sentences that it’s hard to keep all of them straight. To save you from the torture of comma confusion, we’re featuring an awesome 5-minute TED-Ed video on where to place commas in a sentence.

In true TED fashion, the creators of this video use superheroes to turn a typically dry and complex topic in something that’s fun and easy to understand. (Would you expect anything less from the TED brand?) We guarantee that you’ll have a better idea of where to place commas in a sentence after watching it.

What this video covers

This video is a short one, so it doesn’t cover everything you could ever know about commas. And you know what? It’s probably for the best. A video that covered everything would probably be pretty overwhelming. The last thing you want to do is spend time watching something and either not learn anything or just get more confused. Instead, you want to kick your comma confusion to the curb.

So what does this video focus on? Using a clever weight balance analogy, it breaks down how to use commas when you’re working with coordinate conjunctions (word like “and,” “but,” and “so”) and subordinate conjunctions (words like “even though,” “because,” and “although”). In other words, it helps you figure out where to place commas in a sentence like these:

• Because I stayed up late I’m tired.
• Jake created the graphics and Malika wrote the script.
• Tomas specializes in web design whereas Anika focuses on web development.
• I forgot my business cards in the car so I’ll have to go back to grab them.
• Although we were only 15 minutes late we lost our reservation.
• I like chocolate chunk cupcakes and lemon cupcakes. (Are we making you hungry yet?)

Ready to watch the video? You can check it out here:

What did you think?

Did you just finish watching the video? Which superhero character was your favourite: the resourceful and chic comma, the mighty subordinates, or the tiny but strong coordinates? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Want a more comprehensive rundown about how to use commas in a sentence? Check out our post on the 6 key things you need to know about commas.

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Do you need a hyphen in words with prefixes?

You may find that there are some things you do almost automatically when you write. For example, you probably always capitalize the word “I” no matter where it appears in a sentence, and you probably always place a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of a sentence. In most cases, these habits are useful because they make sure our sentences are grammatical. Sometimes, though, we automatically do things that aren’t correct or at least aren’t necessary. One of these things is to use a hyphen between a prefix and a word.

Prefixes are short strings of letters that need to be attached to a main word. For example, “co-,” “non-,” and “pre-” are all prefixes. They can’t stand on their own as words, but they get tacked onto words to change the meaning of the words. These are all examples of words that contain prefixes:

• Antisocial
• Coworker
• Nonsignificant
• Proenvironmental

If you’re like most people, you may think that you need to place a hyphen between a prefix and the base word that it’s attached to.  That it, you may tend to write the four words listed above like this:

• Anti-social
• Co-worker
• Non-significant
• Pro-environmental

In reality, though, you usually don’t need the hyphen. Really??? Really.

If this threw you for a loop, we get it. Most people think they need to hyphenate words with prefixes, so you probably see these kinds of words hyphenated more often than you see them without hyphens. It’s similar to how we don’t see many sentences that start with conjunctions (e.g., “and,” “so,” or “but”) because most people think these sentences are grammatical.

As we talked about in our post on the 6 things that make people bad writers, just because a piece of writing has been published doesn’t mean that it’s a model of strong or grammatical writing. That’s why it can be helpful to turn to a reputable style guide for advice. The Chicago Manual of Style, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, and the MLA Handbook all agree that you don’t need to place a hyphen between a prefix and a word.

Now, we should point out that there are some exceptions to the no-prefix rule. (After all, it wouldn’t be the English language if there weren’t some exceptions, right?) As we noted in our post on the difference between hyphens and dashes, here’s when you do need to use a hyphen between a prefix and a word:

• When the base word is capitalized (e.g., “post-Freudian”)
• When the same vowel appears at the end of the prefix and the beginning of the base word (e.g., “anti-icing”)
  • This one helps people read the word by making it easier to see where the prefix ends and the base word begins
• When leaving the hyphen out would lead to misinterpretation (e.g., “re-cover” vs. “recover”; these are different words with different meanings)
  • In these cases, leaving the hyphen out would change the meaning of the word
• When the word already contains a hyphen (e.g. “non-self-sustaining”)
• When a prefix stands alone (e.g., “low- and middle-income countries”)

So it’s true that there are some times when you need to use a hyphen between a prefix and a word. In most cases, though, you can save yourself a text character and leave that hyphen out. You never know, if you’re writing a grant proposal, conference abstract, or even a tweet, getting rid of those unnecessary hyphens could be the difference between being over vs. being under your word or character limit.

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How to make abbreviations plural

If you’re someone who’s proficient in English, you probably find it fairly easy to make words plural. You know that in most cases, you add either an “-s” or an “-es” to the end of a word (e.g., “reports” and “classes”). And although English does contain its fair share of plural exceptions, you’ve probably memorized many of the important ones (e.g., “children,” “leaves,” and “indices”).

Sometimes, though, we run into situations where we have to make something that isn’t a regular word plural. One of these cases is when we’re working with abbreviations. Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. Here are some examples of abbreviations: “SEO” for “search engine optimization,” “a.m.” for “ante meridiem,” and “MOU” for “memorandum of understanding.”

It’s common to see people make abbreviations plural by adding an apostrophe and an “-s” to the end of the abbreviation. For example, many people write abbreviations in their plural form like this: “MOU’s” and “LCD’s.” This thinking probably comes from the fact that some style guides recommend making letters plural by adding an apostrophe and an “-s” to them (e.g., “I got three A’s on my report card.”)

However, when it comes to abbreviations, the major styles guides (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, and AP) agree that we make abbreviations plural in the same way that we make words plural. That is, we generally add either an “-s” or an “-es” depending on how the word ends. Check out these examples to see how this convention works:

• MOU – MOUs

• LCD – LCDs

• SOS – SOSes

In essence, then, when it comes to making abbreviations plural, you can treat them like regular words.  How’s that for making things simple?

Have any lingering questions about how to make abbreviations plural? Leave us a note in our comments section below and we’ll get in touch. Your question may even inspire one of our upcoming posts!

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“The woman’s card” versus “The woman card”: Which one is it?

Late last month, Donald Trump created a media firestorm when he publicly stated that Hillary Clinton has been successful in the 2016 US presidential campaign only because she’s a woman: “if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card.”

We can assume that Trump made his comment to make Clinton seem like a weak candidate. However, where Trump saw criticism, Clinton’s campaign team saw an opportunity. They made sure that she was ready to fire back, and fire back she did: “Well, if fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.”

In the days and weeks following Trump’s now famous comments, the media has spent a lot of time discussing whether Clinton’s gender matters and whether she would have a fighting chance at becoming president if she wasn’t a woman. There’s even been a lot of attention on the money that Clinton’s campaign and supporters have made from Trump’s remarks. For example, Clinton’s campaign raised $2.4 million in the three days following Trump’s comments, and Zach Wahls, a Clinton supporter, raised over $35,000 by creating a deck of cards about Clinton and other influential women.

One thing that most people aren’t talking about, however, is this: is it “the woman’s card” or “the woman card”? In his comments, Trump refers to Clinton’s advantage as “the woman’s card” (with an apostrophe and “s” on “woman” to indicate possession). In comparison, when Clinton responded to his comments, she referred to “the woman card” (no possessive marker). And this difference doesn’t stop at Trump and Clinton. Even different media outlets are divided: NPR and The Boston Globe refer to “the woman’s card” in their articles whereas TIME and the BBC refer to “the woman card.” So which one’s correct?

Let’s think about what playing “the woman(’s) card” really means. When people play “the woman(’s) card,” it means that they’re appealing to sexist or anti-sexist attitudes to gain some sort of advantage. For example, Trump may believe that Clinton is using “the woman(’s) card” because she’s pledging to fight for gender equality while in office and she’s positioning herself as the first female US president.

If we understand “the woman(’s) card” to be an advantage that comes from focusing on issues related to women, “the woman card” seems like the right term. After all, it suggests that we’re referring to a “card” related to women. It also takes the same format as “the race card,” a similar term that may be more familiar to many of you.

“The woman’s card,” on the other hand, seems to refer to a “card” that belongs to a woman, which isn’t really what “the woman(’s) card” gets at. After all, people don’t have to be women to use the “woman card.” We also don’t hear people talk about “the race’s card.”

In the end, then, Clinton takes the win for using the correct term. This may not be a surprise to many of you given that Trump hasn’t had the best track record as far as grammar and language use go. In his defense, though, idioms are tricky, even for native English speakers. We’ve all had times when we’ve had to look one up to make sure that we’re using it correctly, and maybe next time Trump will too.

Have any lingering thoughts about the difference between “the woman’s card” and “the woman card”? Leave us a note in our comments section below.

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