Generic Phrases
Prepositional Phrases and Commas?
Do all prepositional phrases that interrput sentences need commas. For example, Hamlet love for Ophelia, in actuality, is seen as madness. Would this sentence be punctuated correctly?
Public Comments
- According to "Handbook of Grammar and Composition" (a grammar rulebook) you should use "Use commas to set off parenthetical expressions: in fact, for example, of course..." It would seem your example falls into this category. The book goes on to say "When the expressions do not cause a distinct break in the flow of the sentence and do not require a pause in reading, the commas may be omitted. So, if you wrote your sentence as below, you could omit the commas: Hamlet's love for Ophelia is in actuality madness. BTW, great question!
- Yes, the sentence is punctuated correctly. Anytime the subject and predicate are interruped by a prepositional phrase, that phrase is set off by commas. And that, in my opinion, is the right way to punctuate!
