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THE COMMA
Use a comma to separate sentence connectors and other adverbs from the subject
To avoid confusion and to help the reader to quickly find the subject of a sentence,
English uses the comma to clearly mark and separate any information that comes at the beginning of
the sentence from the subject.
Typical words that can come before the subject include
sentence connectors,
attitudinal adverbs (words signalling the writer's attitude), and time adverbials.
However, almost any adverb used to start a sentence in English will need a comma to separate it from the rest of the sentence.
Notice in the text below how easy it to identify the subjects when the introductory elements have been separated
from the rest of the text by a comma.
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Sentence connector (e.g.,
Therefore,
Furthermore,
Nevertheless)
However, there is a reluctance to introduce new policies or tax regimes without additional information relating to the scale and nature of smaller firms' working capital management routines.
Attitudinal adjunct (e.g., Surprisingly, Undoubtedly, Clearly)
Unfortunately, what is meant by the term varies according to the field of study.
Time adverbals (e.g., Currently, Finally, Next, Second(ly))
Recently, engineering systems have begun to have almost biological levels of complexity.
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The subject of a sentence has special importance in English, because It tells you what the sentence 'is about'. Unlike Finnish, every sentence in English must contain a subject. Even when no 'agent' can be found for an 'action', English will create a 'dummy' subject to fulfil this need. Thus, in the Anglo-American view of the world, things do not just happen, rather there is always someone or something to 'blame' for any particular action.
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'Dummy' Subjects:
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Tänään sataa lunta. (who or what is raining?)
It is snowing today.
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Huoneessa on kolme ikkunaa
There are three windows in the room.
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In addition to this cultural and grammatical need for a subject,
English lacks specific markers to help readers recognise whether a word is noun or verb;
whereas, these functions are often clearly signalled in Finnish through case endings (sijamuodot)
or verbal suffixes (verbin päätteet).
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The function of the sentence connectors is considered so important in English that even when they are used
within sentences, they are specially emphasized and separated from the normal flow of the sentence by commas.
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Beware! Unlike other adverbs, sentence connectors are
not only separated by commas at the beginning of the sentence but also when
they are placed within the sentence. The most common example of this is 'however'.
Compare the two examples below.
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However, the evidence shows that this variable does have a significant influence on useability.
The evidence shows , however, that this variable does have a significant influence on useability.
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The same is not true for other adverbs:
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Recently, engineering systems have begun to have almost biological levels of complexity.
Engineering systems have recently begun to have almost biological levels of complexity.
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