hello everybody and welcome back to my
channel sparkle english
where i teach you how to improve your
level of english
this is the next lesson in my english
writing essentials series
in this series i teach you to improve
your writing skills by teaching you
about how
to correctly use punctuation and about
common punctuation errors
in today's video i'm going to teach you
about comma splices
so what is a comma splice a comma splice
is when two
independent clauses are incorrectly
joined by a comma
to make one sentence so a comma splice
is an error it is not a good thing but
first we need to know
what is an independent clause so we can
avoid making this mistake
an independent clause is a clause that
can stand alone as a sentence
and expresses a complete thought
so for example i am really tired today
this is an independent clause it is a
complete sentence
that expresses a complete thought
however if we have the sentence i'm
really tired today
because i couldn't sleep last night this
here
would be an independent clause because
that can be a sentence that stands alone
but because i couldn't sleep last night
that would be a dependent clause
if you went up to someone and you said
because i couldn't sleep last night
that doesn't express a complete thought
that is not a complete sentence
it doesn't really make sense this
dependent clause
needs the independent clause in order to
make sense
so that is what an independent clause is
so going back to a comma splice a comma
splice happens when two independent
clauses are incorrectly joined by a
comma
to make one sentence so if we look here
i am really tired today i don't want to
go to work
this here is a comma splice i am really
tired today
is an independent clause that functions
as a complete sentence and i don't want
to go to work
is also an independent clause it also
functions
as a complete sentence and a comma
is not strong enough to connect these
two sentences together
we need something stronger so what can
we do
to fix this comma splice there are three
different ways that we can fix this
the first one is to add a conjunction
such as and or but or so i am really
tired today
i don't want to go to work that is
incorrect as it is
with a comma splice to correct it we can
add a conjunction
for example i am really tired today
comma and i don't want to go to work
we could also say i am really tired
today
comma so i don't want to go to work
because these are two independent
clauses we still
will use a comma but we also have to use
a conjunction
because the comma alone is not strong
enough
to glue together or link together
two independent clauses so this is the
first way
that you can fix a comma splice by
keeping the comma
and adding a conjunction and if you want
a full video on all the ways we use a
comma
make sure to click on the link in the
description below to view my
video on comma rules now let's look
at the next method to fix a comma splice
we can change the comma to a semicolon
so i am really tired today semicolon
i don't want to go to work
while a comma is not strong enough to
connect
two independent clauses a semicolon
is strong enough but one thing to know
about using a semicolon
only use a semicolon to link two
independent clauses
that are closely related in thought so
for example
if we had my mom's name is lauren let's
go eat pizza
my mom's name is lauren is an
independent clause
it's a complete sentence and let's go
eat pizza
is also a complete sentence but a
semicolon does
not work here because these are not
related
these are two completely separate
thoughts
that aren't related at all however if we
had
i'm hungry semicolon let's go eat pizza
in this case you could use a semicolon
because
these are connected let's go eat pizza
builds off of i'm hungry it's connected
one thing i want to note is you'll see
that with let's we do not
capitalize the l because it's still a
part of this sentence
so we change the comma to a semicolon
and we keep this as lowercase as not
capitalized
unless it's a proper noun for example a
name
or as you can see here in this example
i don't want to go to work we always
capitalize
i so in this case it would be
capitalized
but any word that you don't normally
capitalize you would keep as
lower case after a semicolon i also have
a video on how to use semicolons which i
will link to in the description below
now the third way to fix a comma splice
is
simple make two separate sentences
so i am really tired today period
and then we would capitalize the next
letter
in this case i is always capitalized
i am really tired today period
i don't want to go to work period
so this is perfectly fine to do to fix a
comma splice
especially if the sentences are quite
long
so let's look at some more comma splice
examples
tomatoes aren't actually vegetables they
are fruit
i don't like most seafood i like sushi
she can't go out tonight she has to
study for her exam tomorrow
i go to the gym every day what are you
doing tomorrow
it's raining we should go to the beach
another day
so we're going to use the methods we
just learned to correct these coma
splices
in the first one tomatoes aren't
actually vegetables they are fruit
here i'm going to add a semicolon so i'm
just going to add
dot and now we have a semicolon
we're not going to change anything else
these two sentences
are related they're closely related so
we're going to just add a semicolon
and the next one i don't like most
seafood
i like sushi in this one i'm going to
add a conjunction
again there are several ways to fix
comma splices but in this one
i think the conjunction butt would work
i don't like most seafood but
i like sushi and remember we are keeping
the comma because when we connect
two independent clauses with a
conjunction we have
the comma before the conjunction
let's look at number three she can't go
out tonight
she has to study for her exam tomorrow
in this case i'm going to add a
semicolon again you could just make this
into two separate sentences
as well number four i go to the gym
every day
what are you doing tomorrow now in this
case
these are two independent clauses but
they're not
really connected so i'm not going to use
a semicolon
i'm just going to add a period change
the comma to a period
and capitalize what so we have
two separate sentences
and in the last one it's raining we
should go to the beach another day
in this one i'm going to keep the comma
and add the conjunction
so it's raining
so we should go to the beach another day
okay so remember that a comma alone
is not strong enough to connect two
independent clauses
a comma can either connect it with a
conjunction
like and but so
or and come before the conjunction
or we can use a semicolon to connect two
independent clauses
or we can just change the comma to a
period and then
capitalize the beginning of the next
sentence
so now let's do some practice together
i'm going to read through all of these
sentences so i want you to identify
in each of these examples if these
are two independent clauses or not and
if we need to change anything in the
sentences
so first i'm going to read through them
and then we will correct them together
number one i don't like science class
the teacher is boring number two
rodrigo loves salty snacks but mario
prefers sweets
number three let's go to the beach it's
a beautiful sunny day
number four my new boyfriend is a lawyer
he is really successful
number five carmen speaks italian french
and spanish
number six she is really fun i want to
be her friend
so take some time and see if you can
identify
any comma splices in these sentences
so let's correct them together number
one
i don't like science class the teacher
is boring
this is a comma splice we have to
correct number one
here i don't like science class this is
an independent
clause the teacher is boring
that is also an independent clause and
these
are related so in this case we're just
going to add
a semicolon change the comma into a
semicolon
again you could make this into two
separate sentences as well
number two rodrigo loves salty snacks
but mario prefers sweets this is correct
this is not a comma splice because we
have a comma
but after the comma we have a
conjunction so
this is a perfectly correct sentence as
it is
number three let's go to the beach it's
a beautiful sunny day
this is a comma splice
let's go to the beach is a complete
sentence it is an independent clause
it's a beautiful sunny day is also an
independent clause
so remember the comma is not strong
enough to connect these
we need to change this to a semicolon
because
these sentences are closely related
or we could turn this into two sentences
as well
number four my new boyfriend is a lawyer
he is really successful
this is not a comma splice we have used
a semicolon correctly
to connect two sentences that are
closely related
so that is already correct number five
carmen speaks italian french and spanish
in this case we don't have two sentence
two complete sentences
we have correctly used commas in this
sentence
because we have a list italian french
and spanish
and this is just one complete
independent clause
so there is no comma splice here this is
correct
as it is and in the last one
she is really fun i want to be her
friend
this one we have two independent clauses
that are connected by a comma so this
is a comma splice we need to fix this
we can change this into a semicolon or
we could add a conjunction
i'm going to add so she is really fun so
i want to be her friend
you could also add a semicolon or change
this into two sentences
it's up to you okay so that is it for
comma splices and how to fix them
once you can identify an independent
clause it's really easy to
identify whether or not there is a comma
splice if you see
two independent clauses and they're
connected by a comma
then that is a comma splice and you can
use
any of the three methods we just
discussed to fix comma splices
thank you guys again for watching if you
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like this one
so you can improve your level of english
thanks again for watching and i'll see
you in my next lesson