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

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

The knowledge invested in school time is retained by people in non-humanitarian professions in the form of fragmentary memories that make them constantly doubt the correctness of written speech. A typical example of such doubts is whether a comma is placed before the "what" and in what cases. Often people are convinced that it is needed everywhere. However, the punctuation mark is not always put, and the correct spelling depends on what role the word plays and what syntactic structure it is in.

When a comma is put

In order not to doubt whether a comma is placed before the "what" and in what cases it is really necessary, you can go in two ways. The first one is more complex and requires knowledge of different circumstances: “what” can be a particle, union or pronoun. In the third case, it acts as a member of the sentence, replacing the noun.

In the first two, it is an auxiliary element that serves to connect the main and subordinate sentences. It is imperative to put a comma if "what" is a union that is used to connect parts of a complex or complex sentence.

Interesting! Is a comma in "because" and in what cases

Examples:

• Vaska decided that it was time to act, and resolutely dipped his paw in sour cream.
• If you do not pay attention to what is happening in the neighboring yard, it will not become safer and calmer.
• He said that I looked especially bad today.
• The call did not come in due time, and he realized that he was offended and alarmed.

There is a rule according to which a comma is placed between two unions combined into a common construction. But it only works when they are in different parts of the sentence, because the meaning requires it. This applies to situations when the rule of one comma works: “because”, “in spite of the fact”, “due to the fact that”, “especially since” and so on.

There are fewer such examples; before writing, you need to evaluate the semantic accents:

• We were only happy because it was our first love experience.
• The room was warm and comfortable despite the blizzard raging outside the window.

Separation with commas is necessary if "what" acts as a union, while in the previous position there is a negation, an introductory construction or a particle that clarifies or limits:

• He didn’t call not because he forgot about this need, he just didn’t have a minute of free time for it.
• She completely forgot about the agreement only because she was engaged in urgent matters.

It is possible to confidently decide whether a comma is placed before the "what" and in what cases, it is possible only by clearly realizing the role of the word and in what position in the sentence it is.

Interesting! As it is spelled "abroad" - together or separately

In what cases is it not put

For a complex union, which includes "what", in most cases, the rule of one comma works, except for the situation described above, when parts of a complex union are separated by the context and are in different sentences of the syntactic construction.

Example: Due to the fact that she recently graduated, she was able to take this position.

When it comes to an idiom or phraseological unit that replaces a nominal compound predicate, the comma is not put, but a dash can be used: "Teach the fool - what to treat the dead".

If “what” stands before homogeneous members of the proposal: “He knew that she would not want to leave her hometown and that this issue was not worth discussing.”

If “what” acts as a particle or pronoun in an interrogative sentence:

• Have you already eaten everything?
• You never know what she thought of herself there!

And another common case when the comma is superfluous: when this insidious word is in the second part of a compound interrogative sentence, consisting of two simple and connected by the conjunction "and": "Who is Masha and what is she doing in my apartment?"

You can understand how to write correctly by determining the role of this word or its location in the syntactic construction.

Outcomes

Contrary to the ingrained misconception, a comma is not always needed before the "what":

• There are different cases when "what" acts as a particle, pronoun and union.
• It can be part of continuous structures.
• The comma is not needed if the word is followed by a second homogeneous word or part of a sentence.
• A dash can be placed before phraseological units or idioms.