Grammar question: But, And

Bloody English teacher! Not only did he tell me (15 years ago now) to never comma before an “and”, but he’s also responsible for my comma fetish :slight_smile: .

So, if I understand you correctly, the dependency test basically requires that I be able to delete everything up to and including the “and” and still have a sentence that scans? If I do, then I can comma. If not, not.

If what follows “and” is a stand-alone sentence in its own right (i.e. an independent clause) then the comma is necessitated. If what follows “and” cannot stand alone (i.e. the verb is dependent on the subject of the clause preceding “and”), then no comma.