The grammar god and his sense of humor

In my recent online communication, a contact admonished me in a matter-of-bitch way that my grammar sucks. Ironically, this person committed a grammatical error in the very same reply. So much for being very meticulous in grammar! The venial sin was a comma splice.


A comma splice, which is also known as a run-on sentence, is committed whenever two independent clauses are merely connected by a comma (,).

e.g. I love you, you love me.

The proper way of connecting two independent clauses, according to the arbitrary rules of English prescriptive grammar, is to add a conjunction after the comma. Conjunctions are connecting words such as and, but, for, or etc.

e.g. I love you, and you love me.

An alternative way of doing away with comma splices is simply to use a semicolon (;).

e.g. I love you; you love me.

This is especially useful if each independent clause in a compound or complex sentence is short.

Indeed, if there were a grammar god, he must have a good sense of humor. Nevertheless, this incident has given me enough motivation to upgrade my command of the English grammar. I shall write a follow-up entry where I explain why I became less particular with grammar during the past several years.

The bottom line: If a person wishes to brag about his allegedly exceptional command of the English tongue, he should be careful not to commit any grammatical error, which communicates otherwise.

Speak soon,
Elevic Pernis