Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my channel Sparkle English where I teach you how to improve
your level of English. This is a new lesson in my English Writing Essentials series, where I teach
you about English punctuation. In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you about the joining comma.
Make sure to subscribe to Sparkle English for more lessons on how to use punctuation correctly. Okay,
so what is the joining comma? The joining comma is used to join two complete sentences into a single
sentence. We place the joining comma before a coordinating conjunction. So here we have the
coordinating conjunctions. And we can say FANBOYS to help us remember them: for, and, nor, but,
or yet, and so. So let's look at some examples. I like drinking tea, but mom likes drinking coffee.
Here you can see we have two complete sentences. I like drinking tea. Mom likes drinking coffee.
Both of these are complete sentences. They are independent clauses, and they can stand alone.
I like drinking tea is a complete sentence. Mom likes drinking coffee is a complete sentence.
So we have a comma before the coordinating conjunction but. Example two, we used to live
in New York, comma, and we loved the city life there. You had better change your attitude, comma,
or we won't be going to the cinema later. So let's look at some more examples.
Mom is making pizza tonight, comma, so we need to buy cheese and pepperoni.
Again, we have two complete sentences. Mom is making pizza tonight. We need to buy
cheese and pepperoni. I know he isn't good for me, yet I can't stop texting him.
She doesn't want to live with roommates, nor does she want to live with a boyfriend.
Johnny moved to Hollywood to become an actor a decade ago, and he has been very successful.
I'm considering moving back to Canada, but I still need to sort out my paperwork.
So in all of these examples, we add a comma before the coordinating conjunction.
Now I want to show you some common mistakes.
The first mistake is adding an unnecessary comma before a coordinating conjunction. So do not use
a comma with a conjunction to join a complete sentence with an incomplete sentence. So let's
compare these two sentences. Jason wanted to go to the cinema but didn't want to see a horror movie.
Jason wanted to go to the cinema, comma, but he didn't want to see a horror movie. Both of
these sentences are correct. However, this would be incorrect. Jason wanted to go to the cinema,
comma, but didn't want to see a horror movie. This would be incorrect because "didn't want
to see a horror movie" is not a complete sentence. It is missing a subject. He didn't want to see a
horror movie, or Jason didn't want to see a horror movie. So when we are joining a complete sentence
and an incomplete sentence with a coordinating conjunction, we do not add a comma. Let's look at
another example. My parents went shopping at the mall and bought new furniture for the living room.
My parents went shopping at the mall, comma, and they bought new furniture for
the living room. Both of these sentences are correct. This would be incorrect. My
parents went shopping at the mall comma and bought new furniture for the living room.
Again, here we are missing a subject. We have to put they bought new furniture for the living room
or my parents to make this a complete sentence. And because bought new furniture for the living
room is not a complete sentence, we cannot use a comma here. So make sure to
only use a comma before a coordinating conjunction if it joins two complete sentences.
Another common mistake is the comma splice. So do not use a comma to join two complete sentences
without a conjunction. For example, my exam is tomorrow. It shouldn't be difficult.
This is incorrect. We have two complete sentences and a comma. However, we are missing
a coordinating conjunction. We can correct this error in two ways. My exam is tomorrow period,
capital I, it shouldn't be difficult. We can add a period and turn this into two complete sentences
to correct this punctuation error. Or we can add a conjunction. My exam is tomorrow, comma, but
it shouldn't be difficult. And this is also correct because the conjunction plus the comma
combines these two complete sentences. Let's look at another example of a comma splice.
I love your videos, they have helped me a lot. This is also incorrect. It would be correct
to divide this into two sentences. I love your videos, period. They have helped me a lot.
So if we turn this into two sentences, this corrects the comma splice error. Or we can
add a conjunction. I love your videos, comma, and they have helped me a lot.
Okay, so now we are going to do a six question quiz. You have to add commas where necessary
in the following sentences. Some sentences do not require commas, and others do. So first,
I will read the sentences. Number one, I love going to the cinema and visiting museums in the
city. Number two, I'd like to go to Greece one day, but it's really expensive to travel there.
Number three, do you prefer skiing in the winter or swimming in the summer? Number four, we could
go for a hike on Sunday, or we could just take it easy and relax at the beach. Number five, my aunt
lives in a small village in the mountains and my grandparents live in a condo in the city. Finally,
number six, they fell in love in the spring and are planning on getting married in the winter.
Okay, number one is correct as it is we do not add a comma. And that is because I love going
to the cinema. This is a complete sentence. But visiting museums in the city is not a complete
sentence. It is missing a subject, so we do not add a comma before and. Number two, we do add
a comma. I'd like to go to Greece one day, comma, but it's really expensive to travel there. We have
two complete sentences. I'd like to go to Greece one day, it's really expensive to travel there.
So we have to add a comma before the coordinating conjunction
number three is correct as it is do you prefer skiing in the winter or swimming in the summer?
Swimming in the summer is not a complete sentence, so we do not add a comma before or.
In sentence four, we have two coordinating conjunctions: or and and. However, we only add one
comma. We could go for a hike on Sunday, comma, or we could just take it easy and relax at the beach.
We do not add a comma before and because relax at the beach is not a complete sentence.
Okay, number five, we do add a comma. My aunt lives in a small village in the mountains, comma,
and my grandparents live in a condo in the city. We have two different complete sentences. So we
add a comma before the coordinating conjunction and. Finally number six, we do not add a comma. It
is fine as it is. They fell in love in the spring and are planning on getting married in the winter.
Are planning on getting married in the winter is not a complete sentence. It does not have a
subject before are, so we don't add a comma before and. Okay, so let me know how many you got correct
out of six in the comments section below. If you had any difficulties with this quiz, make sure to
watch my video on "8 different comma rules" or watch this video again. You can see a playlist
for all my different punctuation videos by clicking on the description of this video,
and I have many different videos on other types of commas, like the vocative comma, the Oxford comma,
or the listing comma. And you can check those videos out by clicking
on the description below as well. Thank you guys for watching. Make sure to subscribe
to Sparkle English for more different English lessons, and I will see you in my next lesson.