comma before 'too' / 'and' [adverb; conjunction]: you will, too.

[bozam]

Hy everyone,

this is an original sentence:

Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these and I guarantee you will too.


In my opinion there's a comma missing, but I'm in doubts where to put it.

First suggestion (comma before "too", learnt that in school):
Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these and I guarantee you will, too.


What about two commas:
Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will, too.


And the last suggestion:
Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will too.

This one seems incorrect to me, I'm used to commas before "too".


I'm not a native speaker, so I really appreciate your advice. Thank you.

 

[srk]

Just one comma, as in your last suggestion.

 

[lucas-sp]

The commas should go where the pause would naturally go in speaking. So I prefer:

Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will too.

There's no comma needed before "too" because there isn't a large natural pause. But there is a pause after "these."

 

[bozam]

Just one remark, I'd also edit the text a little bit:

Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these and I guarantee you will love them, too.

or

Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will love them, too.

or

Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will love them too.


Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

 

[Copyright]

I too learned to put a comma before an ending "too" but with the relaxing of commatization in the world and the advice that "if it's not needed for understanding, leave it out," I'm trying to change my ways. So I would dispense with your final comma, just as I have dispensed with two of them in the beginning of my first sentence.

As to whether or not to put a comma after "these," I think that's a matter of personal preference.

 

[bozam]

Thank you so much for your help. These "little" things are really important to me, and I appreciate your help.

This is then the correct version.
Everyone who has dined at our house has loved these, and I guarantee you will love them too.

It's so weird seeing "too" without a comma....


Thank you.

 

[Copyright]

Looks good to me ... I finally got used to no comma before an ending too and you can too.

 

[bozam]

I too learned to put a comma before an ending "too" but with the relaxing of commatization in the world and the advice that "if it's not needed for understanding, leave it out," I'm trying to change my ways. So I would dispense with your final comma, just as I have dispensed with two of them in the beginning of my first sentence.

As to whether or not to put a comma after "these," I think that's a matter of personal preference.

Excellent, thhs is exactly what I want to discuss... How can you not have a comma before "but" in your first sentence? Is this modern proofreading? Cause I've heard about this, but I have never encountered anything written about this...

 

[Copyright]

Excellent, thhis is exactly what I want to discuss... How can you not have a comma before "but" in your first sentence? Is this modern proofreading? Cause I've heard about this, but I have never encountered anything written about this...

How can I not? I just keep my finger away from that key. And there's a good chance that if I didn't have the quote marks around "too" then I might have put in a comma -- although the quote marks shouldn't make any difference in that decision. I could have written '... if I didn't have the quote marks around "too," then I might have put in a comma.'

Now that I've done that, I think I like it better, especially with such a long passage following that "too."

 

[bozam]

Thank you for the explanation.

One more question, if I may?

If your "but"sentence was printed in a book, wouldn't it look weird without a comma? Aren't readers used to seeing commas in such places, and the absence of commas would make them believe a proofreader did a sloppy job?

 

[Copyright]

Some people would find it odd; some wouldn't.

What I look for as a reader is consistency. If I'm editing something myself, I try to find a punctuation style that matches the author's writing style. In the last book of fiction I edited, the author used simple, straightforward language and there were often several short adjectives leading up to the noun, so I decided to drop the commas after each adjective. It looked cleaner and because of the simplicity of the language there wasn't any confusion.

Punctuation can be part of a book's style -- you just have to make sure that whatever style you choose fits the material and is applied consistently. One style doesn't fit all, in my opinion. If you focus on clarity of communication, I think you'll find you have more latitude than you imagine.

However, I remember reading Jan Morris's Hong Kong and wondering if the author had forgotten there was any punctuation in the language beyond a final period, and she writes very long sentences. You really end up reading the book twice because you have to keep going back to put in your own mental punctuation.

 

[bozam]

Excellent, thank you very much for explaining this to me. Could you perhaps copy and paste a sentence or two with those short adjectives leading up to the noun? I'm very curious too see what exactly you've meant, and how it looks like in a book. The thing is that my first language (Slovene) is much more strict and the commas need to be there, otherwise it looks wrong. I understand that as a writer you have a bit more liberty, but nevertheless there's not much choice in Slovene; commas need to be there. And now it looks that English proofreading has gotten much more liberal lately, only I'm old school and I have to get used to it.

Yes, consistency.... I guess I'll be keeping the commas for now.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me. I appreciate it.

 

[Copyright]

It will take a while to dig out. But be patient and I'll look.

 

[bozam]

That would be excellent, thank you very much. When you have time...