THE COMMA Use a comma before and after 'subordinate clauses' to mark the beginning of the subject Subordinate clauses are introduced by subordinators such as contrastive or causative subordinators. Such clauses depend on the rest of the sentence for their meaning, since they do not express complete thoughts and thus cannot stand alone. They are sometimes called dependent clauses because they "depend" on a main clause to give them meaning and must therefore always be attached to a main clause. Function Subordinate conjunctions Example TIME after, before, when, until, since, when After the United States withdrew its support from the Kyoto Accord, there has been little hope of diminishing global emissions of greenhouse gases in the near future. PLACE where, wherever Wherever you go, Bluetooth wireless technology connects your devices without adding clutter to your desktop... MANNER as, as if As you enter the room, you will notice immediately that... CAUSE because, since, as Because CH4 is also a greenhouse gas, it can be regarded as making both a direct and an indirect effect on the greenhouse effect. CONDITION if, unless If you enter the factory, you are required to wear a hard hat. PURPOSE so that, in order that, in order to, for In order to stabilise concentrations of nitrous oxide at present day levels, an immediate reduction in global emissions by 80% would be needed. CONTRAST although, while, whereas Although there are dozens of greenhouse gases, a handful of dominant ones have attracted the most attention.   Because subordinate clauses always express additional, less important ideas than those in the main clause, they always require a comma when placed at the beginning of the sentence, before the subject of the main clause, but not when placed after the main clause. (Note that Finnish always separates subordinate clauses with commas, regardless of their position in the sentence.) Before main clause: Always use a comma! After Finland refused to yield to Russian demands concerning areas of Finnish territory, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on November 30, 1939. After main clause: usually without a comma The Soviet Union attacked Finland in the "Winter War" of 1939-1940 Ø after Finland refused to yield to Russian demands concerning areas of Finnish territory.   A common exception to this rule are the contrastive and causative subordinators, and more specifically "while", "since", and "as" because only the use of the comma distinguishes them from their other meanings expressing 'Time' of silloin kun, jstk. lähtien, and samalla kun. Before main clause: Always use a comma! Although there is no universal agreement within the scientific community on the impacts of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, it has been theorized that they may lead to an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's surface. After main clause: use a comma if contrastive or causative subordinators There is no universal agreement among scientists and climatologists on the potential impacts of an increase in the average temperature of the Earth, although it has been hypothesized that it could lead to a variety of changes in the global climate, sea level, agricultural patterns, and ecosystems.

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