"B" Careful

The homonyms today start with the letter "B." To begin, let's examine the picture. To BROWSE is to read a book casually, looking at only random passages. If we combine the foreheads of both children, we get two BROWS. Some other "B" homonyms are BOARDER (a person who pays for meals and lodging) and BORDER (a margin, rim, or edge).  Finally, we have BRIDAL (pertaining to a bride or to a marriage ceremony) and BRIDLE (the harness fitted about a horse's head).                                               

The grammar lesson today has to do with the difference in punctuating compound sentences and compound parts of a sentence.

A compound sentence is two simple sentences (two independent clauses) joined by a coordinating conjunction: and, or, but, for, yet, nor, and so.

Note: Before placing a comma, be sure that the part of the sentence on EACH SIDE of the conjunction makes sense by itself. If EITHER PART does not, do not use a comma.

Example:

  She did not seem to miss him, and Frost resented her not being as miserable as he was.

Do not put a comma (or any other kind of punctuation) between compound parts of a sentence, such as compound subjects, compound verbs, compound direct objects, compound prepositional phrases, compound adjectives, compound adverbs, etc.

Examples:

He felt good about the poem and believed that he had made progress in his technique. (no comma because this a compound verb. The part after the "and" does not make sense by itself because it has no subject.)

Belle Frost decided to open a private school with her daughter Jeanie and soon-to-be daughter-in-law as teachers. (no comma because this is a compound object of the preposition; the part of the sentence after "and" does not make sense by itself.)

Example sentences were taken from my book Deep Woods: The Story of Robert Frost.