Is there a comma before "to" and in what cases

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

The Russian language is unique in the number of tools that make constructions flexible, logical and functional. Conjunctions, service parts of speech are useful elements in the construction of complex and complex sentences. Sometimes the writer has reasonable questions about in what cases a comma is placed before the “so” or it is always needed.

Punctuation mark

A comma is a punctuation mark used in different cases, including when it is necessary to delimit or join different parts of a sentence or parts of a sentence that are similar in structure and content to each other. In order to avoid confusion, it is better to learn the rules that determine the main cases of comma placement. To determine whether a comma is placed before "so" and in what cases, whether it is always needed, you need to know a simple pattern: the main and subordinate clause need a comma as a punctuation connecting mechanism.

She is confronted with several subordinate unions. Most often it is “what”, “to”, “how” and “because”. There are less common ones - “as if”, “since” and some others, but a comma is also required before them, which connects the main sentence and the subordinate clause in the syntactic construction with it.

The answer to the question of whether a comma is placed before “to” and in what cases is extremely simple: every time a punctuation mark is placed before the subordinate union. The only exception is when “to” is part of a complex union, in which both parts are equal and determine the further meaning of the clause.

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Examples:

• We went to the station to meet visiting relatives.
• She went to the admissions office to apply for admission.
• I plucked out all the radishes to prepare the beds for planting green manure.
• We went to a wild beach to escape from the unbearable heat and crowds of tourists.
• They went to bed early to get a good night's sleep before the difficult day that lay ahead of them tomorrow.

According to the same principle, it is necessary to solve all other questions that arise before the test taker, the examiner or simply sending a letter, a business document, if we are talking about subordinate clauses:

• He decided he would be more careful.
• So it remained unclear why it was necessary to go so far and why it was impossible to discuss this issue over the phone.
• I am not going to enter the Polytechnic, because I do not know enough mathematics for this.

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Other situations

The comma rule applies when complex subordinate unions are used in the construction of a syntactic structure. They are found mainly in business or formal writing, because simpler constructions are used in oral speech. But here, too, there are options that need detailed analysis: if there are doubts about the correctness, it is better to think about or apply a not so complicated means of combining the main and subordinate sentences. With the conjunction “to” use the constructions “in order to” and “instead of to”.

Here's the one comma rule at work:

• He went to his mother instead of going home and making up with his wife.
• I got busy preparing dinner instead of preparing for tomorrow's interview.
• The instructions describe the connection process in detail so that the user knows in what order to do it.

But even in such structures there are difficult moments. The meaning put by the author divides the complex subordinate union into two parts. This is rarely seen with “to”, but it can be found in other sentences.

Example: I was convinced that you can become a strong person only through what I think and do, and not self-praise or self-aggrandizement.

Outcomes

1. "To" is a subordinate union used to link the main clause and the subordinate clause.
2. It is almost always preceded by a comma. This is determined by the rule of the Russian language.
3. There are options for using a complex union of two equal parts. They do not put a punctuation mark before the "so": the rule of one comma works.