ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


SAT Writing Videos 90 videos

SAT Writing and Language Drill 7.1 Sentence Structure
85 Views

What do austronauts and Michael Jackson have in common? Watch this video on sentence structure to find out!

SAT Writing and Language Drill 7.2 Effective Language Use
23 Views

Learn about effective language use from austronauts that like hoarding moon rocks in this SAT writing drill!

SAT Writing & Language: Sentence Transitions at the Beginning of an Essay
16 Views

What's the whole essay about? How does time control or matter to the essay as a whole?

See All

Where Does the Comma Go? 13 Views


Share It!


Description:

Where does the comma go? Before "which", you always need one. Except in this example. Non-restrictive clauses are almost always set off with commas. Freakin' commas.


Transcript

00:03

okay SAT writing shmoopers eight of

00:06

eleven here....[mumbling]

00:17

focused right there on the underlying

00:20

part dinner which was beef stew alright

00:23

where did that come from all right so

00:25

let's cruise through the document here

00:27

and finally after two and a half busy [finger following sentence]

00:30

exhilarating hours it was time to go

00:31

they climbed back in the Eagle stowed

00:34

the rocks and prepared the ship for

00:36

departure then it was time for dinner

00:38

which was beef stew and by the way

00:42

people we're gonna point out one thing

00:43

here that relates to a previous question

00:44

here notice that they say they climbed

00:47

back in the Eagle stowed to the rocks

00:50

not stowed away the rocks and stowed the

00:53

rock so it's interesting that they used

00:54

correct grammar here whereas they didn't

00:57

in the question they actually drove

00:59

before so sometimes they give you a

01:01

little gifts like that all right back to

01:04

regularly-scheduled the commercial

01:06

programming so then it was time for

01:07

dinner which was beef stew and we're

01:09

clearly missing something here what do

01:11

you think that is well after a long day [astronaut walks back to spacecraft]

01:13

of moonwalking nothing sounds better

01:15

than a nice warm cup of beef stew we've

01:18

never been to the moon so that's

01:19

speculation but what we do know is the [beef stew appears]

01:22

meaning of the clause which was beefs do

01:25

is non restrictive meaning it's non

01:28

essential to the meaning of the sentence

01:30

you could cut it out and the sentence

01:31

would still live like if it were deleted

01:34

just go well then it was time for dinner

01:36

yeah it could stand alone like the

01:38

cheese as a sentence non-restrictive

01:40

clauses are usually set off with commas

01:43

and almost always before which you need

01:46

one so the answer there is dinner comma

01:48

which was beef stew let's look at the

01:50

loser bowl here yes are you guys knowing [person holding a loser bowl]

01:53

that dinner consisted of yummy stew

01:54

isn't essential to the sentence so we

01:56

know a comma is necessary so we know

01:58

there's a change

01:59

however the non restrictive clause only

02:01

needs to be separated from the rest of

02:02

the sentence no need to chop it up with

02:04

further punctuation so

02:05

see if a came before dinner in the

02:08

original sentence dinner of beef stew [vegetables appear]

02:11

would work but we plug it into the

02:13

sentences written while it reads then it

02:15

was time for dinner of beef stew which

02:18

may work in some old-timey flowery weird

02:20

British language kinda way the past

02:22

but sounds totally out of place in the

02:25

context and tone of this essay so that's

02:27

it it's dinner , and chow down

Related Videos

SAT Writing and Language Drill 7.1 Sentence Structure
85 Views

What do austronauts and Michael Jackson have in common? Watch this video on sentence structure to find out!

SAT Writing and Language Drill 7.2 Effective Language Use
23 Views

Learn about effective language use from austronauts that like hoarding moon rocks in this SAT writing drill!

SAT Writing & Language: Sentence Transitions at the Beginning of an Essay
16 Views

What's the whole essay about? How does time control or matter to the essay as a whole?

Its...or is it it's?
21 Views

Its...or is it it's? Watch this SAT drill to help unravel that age old question.

SAT Writing & Language: Em-Dashes vs. Semicolons
22 Views

Cars and dashes. Yes, we're talking dashes not dashboards in this SAT Writing video.