Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Keepongoing]

Shopping is difficult, but it is fun to do.

Shopping is difficult, but fun to do.

In the second sentence does a subject need to be written out? Isn't it implied? Without the subject in the second clause it still needs a comma, right?

Yet with "and " as a coordinating conjuction this is not true.

I should not use a comma in the second phrase unless there is a subject and that subject must be written not implied.

[jmbran11]

IThe second one does not need a comma, because the second clause is not a complete sentence but rather a dependent clause (I think). No different than "and".

Ex.: Shopping is fun, but I hate it.
Shopping is fun but difficult for me. (I think)

[daskalos]

I think we call what you're talking about "ellipsis," where the subject "shopping" is implied, because leaving it in is ungainly. Because it still qualifies as a compound sentence, it needs the comma, at least that's what they taught me in TESOL class.

Which isn't to say that "Shopping is difficult but fun to do" can't be a sentence in its own right. But it doesn't carry exactly the same meaning. Not sure how exactly, but I think it's that without the comma, "fun" is qualifying "difficult." With the comma, both "difficult" and "fun" refer to "shopping."

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ellipsis
noun

1. grammar.
A figure of speech in which a word or words needed for the sense or grammar are omitted but understood.

[ChopChaeJoe]

My opinion is that the comma is optional in the second sentence.

[Keepongoing]

The subject does not need to be written out - it is implied, as you correctly say. It also needs a comma, because there is a pause before 'but'.

A comma is a punctuation mark denoting a speech pause, and that is the only rule that applies - not whether you use a conjunction or not. For example:

1) "Working for a living is hard and boring."
2) "Working for a living is hard, and boring."

Both sentences are correct. In the first one, the conjunction is used to make a compound adjective - 'hard and boring'. In the second, the conjunction is used to connect the two phrases - it is a contraction of: "Working for a living is hard, and (it is) boring." This difference is indicated in speech by a pause in 2), and that is why the comma is used

[EFLtrainer]

Basically, I agree with mash. There has been, and forever will be, arguments about commas. However, if you keep it simply down to where and when you pause (not counting those instances when other forms of punctuation are necessary), it becomes easy.

Its like n, n2, and n3. Two pauses.

Its like n, n2 and n3. One pause.

Use commas the same way you speak.

[some waygug-in]

I'll try to remember that, if I ever get my tongue unstuck from the floor, after drooling over your new avatar.

In the words of the late great Benny Hill.

What do you think of all the sex and violence on TV?

BH: Well, I look at it like this",

[daskalos]