Before "or" there is a comma. Comma before "or"

Conjunctions are one of the most difficult topics that students encounter. Teachers spend a long time trying to explain what this part of speech is and how to handle it.

So, conjunctions are an independent part of speech that connects two sentences with each other. But it's not that simple.

After all, there is one more thing that absolutely every person needs to know: which conjunctions are preceded by a comma.

Rules for placing commas before conjunctions in Russian

According to the rule, a comma is placed before all conjunctions in complex sentences.

But there are some nuances.

If there are particles in front of the union "only", "merely", "exclusively"(and others similar to them) you can safely skip the comma. She's not needed there. As, for example, in this sentence:

“I only smiled when I was sure no one was watching.”

You can also skip the comma when there are words before the conjunction such as “especially”, “that is”, “namely”, “in particular”(and others similar to them). For example, take the following sentence:

“There was always a desire to live in his eyes, especially when he saw me.”

Cases when a comma before “and” is not needed

Let's list these points:

A conjunction connects homogeneous members of a sentence:

“I equally loved peaches, grapes, and apricots”;

There is a common minor term:

“Lizonka could easily discern the makings of a great artist and ability for music”;

Several interrogative sentences are combined:

“Where did you see him and what did he say?”;

Several impersonal sentences are connected:

“You need to add salt and sprinkle the dish with pepper.”

Depending on the meaning, a complex conjunction can be divided into several parts and separated by commas. For example:

“Lisa didn’t show up for work, because overslept (emphasis on the event itself)”;
“Lisa didn’t show up for work because overslept (emphasis on the reason).”

Some conjunctions always break apart and are separated by commas. For example: “such as”, “more than”, “better than” and others (a comma before “not that” and “not that” is not needed).

A complex conjunction is separated by a comma if:

Before the conjunction there is a particle “not”;
The conjunction is preceded by intensifying words and other particles;
The first part of the conjunction is included in the homogeneous members of the sentence.

A comma is not needed when a complex conjunction comes before the main clause.

Examples of placing commas before some conjunctions:

"I wanted to buy or red, or black, or white sneakers, but my father chose green ones, and I had to agree”;
"You looked at me like that as if I betrayed you and gave you to the wolves”;
"Clouds have covered the sky, And the sun was no longer visible";
"I loved him, But he never loved me";
“Misha has always been kind, A Gosha was his complete opposite”;
“He used to hit me hard, That's why I never respected him";
“Kostya was tall, and Also brown-eyed";
« I loved him no matter what for already knew him inside and out”;
"I did not see, How she fell, but I heard her scream”;
"I've seen better than him, Although no, there has never been anyone better than him”;
"You motivate me to be better than yesterday, better than Hour ago";
"I didn't love anyone because your own mother";
"I wanted to scream but still I held back because it didn’t make any sense”;
"Every child changes as the world will know";
« Considering that this task was difficult, you can safely be proud of yourself”;
“I didn’t think about anything at all. before got into an accident";
"Thank you friends and family for what they didn’t abandon me in a difficult situation”;
"Not dollars, namely rubles! – I repeated to Olga”;
"I will do it, if only will you give me permission";
“He was too stubborn; than he didn’t want to change, there was no question of our future together”;
« Not only that he can’t read, and he also speaks poorly”;
"I never blamed her, even despite the fact that she left when I was five”;
"I didn't like honey whereas you adored him";
"I decided not to do anything to don’t embarrass yourself once again”;
“You are different, you are a welcome guest in his house, regardless weather, mood, condition";
"I remember every minute of my life since got in an accident";
"I was Not really stupid, but strange";
"Because of I was an only child, I grew up selfish”;
"I'm surprised, however, No less than you, this is frightening, but today your absent-mindedness is especially frightening”;
“We've been through a lot; that it happened that it was better for no one to know”;
"You're so sweet What I want to touch you and keep you in dust on a shelf, but you’re not good for anything more”;
"You would have had to leave anyway, otherwise I would hurt you too much";
"I love you, as if birds love the heights of heaven";
"I miss, as well as did you miss me once";
"I weighed more than enough";
“If you really want to give up everything, That why are you holding on to me”;
"I will only smile in case if and you will";
“I will definitely do everything, after I’ll rest”;
“Your plans are delightful; in order to to fulfill them, we don’t need to buy anything more”;
"I liked it equally How yellow, So and blue color";
"After such words, How "“darling”, “dear”, “sweet”, I feel needed and loved”;
“I respected Nastya, after all She always kept her word."

Conclusion

Conjunctions are a tricky part of speech. You need to be careful and careful with her. That is why this topic deserves special attention.

Was the last phenomenon a happy accident, or is life really beginning to move towards those who would like to lead it onto the path of rationality - in any case, it is pleasant and gives hope that the wild connection between university Tatiana and the wine monopoly and Yar will finally be destroyed . L. Andreev, Moscow.

Did you have a bad time at Plyushkin’s, or do you simply walk through the forests and beat up passersby of your own accord? N. Gogol, Dead Souls.

How long did her heart suffer, or did the time for tears soon pass? (Pushkin);

II. The conjunctions either...or are considered to be repeated, and the subordinate parts of a complex sentence connected by these conjunctions are separated by a comma:

And for a long time all those present remained perplexed, not knowing whether they really saw these extraordinary eyes, or whether it was just a dream... (G.);

...To the left, the entire sky above the horizon was filled with a crimson glow, and it was difficult to understand whether there was a fire somewhere, or whether the moon was about to rise (Ch.);

After this, it will be decided whether he will fight, fly, live, or whether they will always give up his seat on the tram and see him off with sympathetic glances (Pol.).

It was difficult to understand whether it was twilight coming, or whether the clouds had enveloped the earth so impenetrably (Bab.).

Whether the ringing of city and monastery bells was heard through the open windows, whether a peacock was screaming in the courtyard, or someone was coughing in the hallway, everyone involuntarily came to mind that Mikhail Ilyich was seriously ill (Chekhov).

After a conversation with Prince Andrei, Pierre ponders whether he will continue to adhere to Masonic positions, or whether he must accept his friend’s views on life.

III. A comma is not placed if ... or connect homogeneous members of the sentence:

1.Will he support me or not?

Nekhlyudov understood this word and this look in such a way that she wants to know whether he sticks to his decision or accepted her refusal and changed it (L.T.);

3. A district official walks by - I’m already wondering where he’s going: for the evening to some brother of his or straight to his home (Gogol).

IV. A comma is placed between parts with unions either...or, revealing the content of the general subordinate part: The question remained unresolved: whether Saburov’s battalion would begin the march to Stalingrad, or, after spending the night, the entire regiment would immediately move in the morning (Sim.);

Note. Unions are... or not always repeating. So, in the sentence And it is not clear whether Matvey Karev is laughing at his words or at the way the students are looking into his mouth (Fed.), the conjunction introduces an explanatory clause, and the conjunction or connects homogeneous members.

Consequently, a comma is not placed if ... or connect homogeneous members of the sentence, and is placed if they connect parts of the sentence.

Note 4. Unions A, And, less often But, if they form one whole with the following introductory word, they are not separated by a comma, for example: which means, and consequently, but therefore, but of course and so on.

Brother Gregory, you enlightened your mind with a letter(Pushkin).

Forgive me, peaceful valleys, and you, familiar mountain peaks, and you, familiar forests(Pushkin).

Well said, Father Varlaam(Pushkin).

E th, Be careful, don't play around under the forests!(Bryusov).

Oh, you were a frisky child(Pushkin).

Oh, these guys are for me! You will already be dead(Pushkin).

UV s, young lover, poet, brooding dreamer, killed by a friend's hand(Pushkin).

Life oh, alas, not an eternal gift(Pushkin).

N y, If so, hurry up and have some tea and call your daughters(Pushkin).

- AND, empty! - said the commandant(Pushkin).

Note. The following particles are not interjections and therefore are not separated by commas: O, used when addressing, Well, Oh, Oh etc., used to express an intensifying shade, for example:

ABOUT field, field, who strewn you with dead bones?(Pushkin).

But I do not want, O others, die(Pushkin).

N at Well, Onegin? You are yawning?(Pushkin).

ABOUT X You are a goy, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich!(Lermontov).

A X what are you like!

N at and it was a great day!

§ 158. A comma is placed after words Yes, Certainly etc., denoting a statement, after No, indicating negation, after how come, What, indicating confirmation, consent, etc., after What, denoting a question if these words are closely related to the sentence immediately following them, revealing their specific meaning, for example:

D A, I am that unfortunate person whom your father deprived of a piece of bread, drove out of his father’s house and sent to rob on the highways(Pushkin).

- Have you been to Moscow, doctor?
- D A, I had some practice there(Lermontov).

Not T, It is not for the decrepit East to conquer me(Lermontov).

- Do you remember Katyusha at Aunt Maria Ivanovna’s?
- How come e, I taught her to sew(L. Tolstoy).

- Thu O, were you scared just now? - asked my father, pushing me(M. Gorky).

§ 198. When a comma and a dash meet, the comma is placed first, and then the dash, for example:

“You live well, neighbor,” Petro greeted, touching his cap with his mitten.(Sholokhov).

Note. If after the dash there are words that are separated by commas according to existing rules (for example, introductory words), then the first comma is omitted, for example:

Pine, spruce, fir, cedar - in a word, all species of coniferous trees are found in the Siberian taiga.

§ 199. Closing quotation marks are not preceded by a period, comma, semicolon, colon, or dash. All these signs are placed only after quotation marks, for example:

Zverkov began to instruct me on the “path of truth.” He is interested in “all sorts of answers”, but not people(M. Gorky).

You know, he had been planning to “get hurt” for a long time; he expressed to Evgeny Solovyov, Suler...(M. Gorky).

Here you have “My Companion” - this is not an essay, it’s good because it’s not made up(M. Gorky).

§ 201. An opening or closing parenthesis is not preceded by a comma, semicolon, colon, or dash; all these signs are placed only after the closing bracket, for example:

There were about two hundred steps to the shore, Ermolai walked boldly and non-stop (he noticed the road so well), only occasionally grunting...(Turgenev).

Gnedich translated a Jewish melody from Byron (1824), which was later translated by Lermontov (“My Soul is Gloomy”); Gnedich's translation is weak...(Belinsky).

As soon as he drinks, he starts telling that he has three houses on the Fontanka in St. Petersburg... and three sons (and he has never been married): one in the infantry, another in the cavalry, the third on his own...(Turgenev).

§ 131. A semicolon is placed between independent clauses that are combined into one complex sentence and are related to each other:

Unions But, however, yet, nevertheless etc., especially if these sentences are significantly common or have commas inside them, for example:

I only had blue paint A; But, despite this, I decided to draw a hunt(L. Tolstoy).

It would seem that there was absolutely no need for her to go to him, and he himself was not very welcoming to her. d; however she traveled and stayed with him for whole weeks, and sometimes more(Herzen).

Note. Before the union A A semicolon is used only when the sentences it links are very common and have commas inside them, for example:

I thought he was crying l; A I must tell you that Azamat was a stubborn boy, and nothing could make him cry, even when he was younger(Lermontov).

1 In such cases, sentences beginning with conjunctions
And, Yes, are connecting in nature.

Unions And And Yes(in the sense of “and”) only when they connect two sentences that would otherwise be separated by a period 1, for example:

He was reading a book, thinking about what he was reading, stopping to listen to Agafya Mikhailovna, who was chatting tirelessly A; And at the same time, different pictures of the economy and future family life without communication presented themselves to his imagination(L. Tolstoy).

Almost every evening later they went somewhere out of town, to Oreanda or to a watering hole. d; And the walk was a success, the impressions were invariably beautiful and majestic every time(Chekhov).

§ 130. A semicolon is placed between independent clauses that are combined into one complex sentence without the help of conjunctions, especially if such clauses are very common and have commas inside them, for example:

Meanwhile the tea was drunk T; long-harnessed horses were chilled in the snow y; the month was turning pale in the west and was ready to plunge into its black clouds hanging on the distant peaks like shreds of a torn curtain(Lermontov).

Everything around is frozen in a sound autumn sleep e; through the grayish haze, wide meadows are barely visible under the mountain A; they were cut by the Volga, spilled over it and blurred, melted in the mists(M. Gorky).

§ 128. A period is placed at the end of the listing headings (and in the case when it follows a colon), if these headings are sufficiently developed and especially if they are independent sentences and if there are already any punctuation marks inside them, for example:

Summarizing all of the above, we can say:

1) Two hundred years ago in our Academy of Sciences the theory of the ship arose in the form of a two-volume work by L. Euler “Scientia Navalis ».

2) A few years later, the first essay on structural mechanics appeared in the form of Euler’s memoir “Examen des efforts qu’ort à supporter... ».

3) Throughout the 19th century. Among the full members of the Academy of Sciences were sailors, and only in 1917 this was abandoned.

[A few more points follow.] (Academician A. N. Krylov).

§ 183. An exclamation mark is placed after addresses at the beginning of a sentence and interjections at both the beginning and in the middle of a sentence (the second is found only in poetic speech), if such addresses and interjections are exclamatory, for example:

Old man! I heard many times that you saved me from death(Lermontov).

And now, ah! for all his love fervor, such an unbearable blow was in store for him(Krylov).

§ 196. A sentence that stands in direct speech and indicates to whom it belongs (“the words of the author”) can:

precede direct speech; in this case, a colon is placed after it, and after direct speech - a punctuation mark in accordance with the nature of direct speech, for example:
He turned away and, walking away, muttered: “Still, this is completely against the rules.”(Lermontov).

Finally I told her: “Do you want to go for a walk on the rampart?”(Lermontov).

She looked and screamed: “This is Kazbich!”(Lermontov).
follow direct speech; in this case, after direct speech there is a question mark, or an exclamation mark, or an ellipsis, or a comma (the latter instead of a period), and after this sign a dash, for example:
“What about Kazbich?” - I asked the staff captain impatiently(Lermontov). or:
- What about Kazbich? - I asked the staff captain impatiently.

“How boring it is!” - I exclaimed involuntarily(Lermontov). or:
- How boring it is! - I exclaimed involuntarily.

“She died...” Aksinya echoed(Sholokhov). or:
“She died...” Aksinya echoed.

“There’s the district chieftain,” whispered Panteley Prokofievich, pushing Grigory from behind(Sholokhov). or:
“There’s the district chieftain,” whispered Panteley Prokofievich, pushing Grigory from behind.
break direct speech into two parts; in this case put:
before the words of the author there is a question mark, or an exclamation mark, or an ellipsis in accordance with the nature of the first part of direct speech, or a comma (if none of these signs is required), and after them a dash;

after the words of the author - a dot if the first part of direct speech is a complete sentence, and a comma if it is unfinished, followed by a dash; if direct speech is highlighted with quotation marks, then they are placed only before the beginning of direct speech and at the very end of it, for example:

- Would you like to add some rum? - I told my interlocutor. - I have a white one from Tiflis; it's cold now(Lermontov).

- Well, that's enough, that's enough! - said Pechorin, hugging him friendly. - Am I not the same?(Lermontov).

“Listen to me...” said Nadya, “someday to the end.”(Chekhov).

“My name is Foma,” he answered, “and my nickname is Biryuk(Turgenev).

“It’s going to rain,” Kalinich objected, “the ducks are splashing around, and the grass smells painfully strong.”(Turgenev).

Note 1.If the author’s words contain two verbs with the meaning of a statement, one of which refers to the first part of direct speech, and the other to the second, then a colon and a dash are placed after the author’s words, For example:

“Let’s go, it’s cold,” Makarov said and asked gloomily: “Why are you silent?”(M. Gorky).

Note 2. The rules set out in this paragraph also apply to sentences containing quotes with indications of who they belong to.

Note 3. Internal monologue (“mental speech”), which takes the form of direct speech, is also enclosed in quotation marks.

Lexical formations representing:

repetition of the same word, For example: small-small, barely, a little, stood, stood and went away (the meaning of time limitation);
repetition of the same word or the same stem, but with different endings or prefixes, For example: day-to-day, rad-radehonek, alone, a long time ago, black-black, more or less, little by little, tightly, criss-cross, fat-fat, after all, willy-nilly, Also the only one;
a combination of two synonymous words, for example: unexpectedly, quietly and quietly.

Note.Two identical nouns in an intensifying combination, one of which is in them. fell., and the other into creation. pad., written separately, for example: eccentric by eccentric, honor by honor, etc.

Missed -

Graphic letter abbreviations complex adjectives written together to distinguish them from abbreviated phrases consisting of an adjective and a noun, for example: railway- railway, but: and. d.- Railway, agricultural- agricultural, but: With. X.- Agriculture.

The hyphen is preserved in graphic letter abbreviations of words written with a hyphen, for example: Social-Democrats- social democrat and social democratic, J.-J. Rousseau- Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Compound words whose first element is a numeral (see §76, paragraph 3), if this numeral is written in numbers, for example: 25 percent , 10 year old , 35th anniversary .
Complex ordinal numbers, if the first part is written in numbers, for example: 183 millionth , 5 thousandth .

Ordinals, if they are written in numbers with a grammatical ending, for example: 15th , 127th .

Special terms and names, including abbreviations, which include a separate letter of the alphabet, for example: β-rays(beta rays), or a numeral written in numbers and placed in second place, e.g. TU -104, But: 4000 M(forklift with bucket).

§ 79. Written with a hyphen:

Compound nouns that have the meaning of one word and consist of two independently used nouns connected without the help of connecting vowels O And e, For example:

Firebird, boy-woman, diesel engine, cafe Restaurant, Prime Minister, major general, Buryat-Mongolia(with declension, only the second noun changes);
hut-reading room, purchase and sale, good boy, sawfish, Moscow River(both nouns change with declension).

Compound names of political parties and movements, as well as their supporters, for example: social democracy, anarcho-syndicalism, social democrat, anarcho-syndicalist.

Complex units of measurement, whether formed with or without connecting vowels, for example: man-day, ton-kilometer, kilowatt-hour.

Word workday written together.

Names of intermediate countries of the world, Russian and foreign languages, For example: northeast and so on., Nord-East and so on.

Combinations of words that have the meaning of nouns, if such combinations include:

a) verb in personal form, for example: Dont touch me(plant), love-not-love(flower);
b) union, for example: ivan-da-marya(plant);
c) preposition, for example: Rostov-on-Don, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Frankfurt am Main.

Compound surnames formed from two personal names, for example: Rimsky-Korsakov, Skvortsov-Stepanov, Mamin-Sibiryak, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Andersen-Nexe.

Foreign language compound surnames with the first part Sen- And St. , For example: Saint-Simon, Saint-Just, Saint-Saens, Sainte-Beuve. Oriental (Turkic, Arabic, etc.) personal names are also written with an initial or final component denoting family relationships, social status, etc., for example: Ibn Fadlan, Kor-ogly, Tursun-zade, Izmail Beys, Osman Pasha.

Note 1. Compound names with first part Don- are written with a hyphen only in cases where the second, main part of the name is not used separately in the Russian literary language, for example: Don Juan, Don Quixote. But if the word Don used in the meaning of “master”, it is written separately, for example: Don Pedro, Don Basilio.

Note 2. Articles and particles that make up foreign-language surnames are written separately, without a hyphen, for example: von Bismarck, Le Chapelier, de Coster, de Valera, Leonardo da Vinci, Lope de Vega, Baudouin de Courtenay, von der Goltz. Articles and particles, without which surnames of this type are not used, are written with a hyphen, for example: Van Dyck.

In the Russian rendering of some foreign-language surnames, articles and particles are written together, although in the corresponding languages they are written separately, for example: Lafontaine, Laharpe, Decandolle, Delisle.

Note 3. Names of different categories, for example Roman ones, are not connected by hyphens Gaius Julius Caesar, similar to the corresponding Russian name, patronymic and surname.

Note 4. Personal names and surnames combined with nicknames are written with the latter separately, for example: Ilya Muromets, Vsevolod the Third Big Nest, Vanka Cain, Muravyov the Hangman.

Geographical names consisting of:

a) from two nouns, for example: Orekhovo-Zuevo, Kamenets-Podolsk, Heart-Stone(Cape);
b) from a noun and a subsequent adjective, for example: Mogilev-Podolsky, Gus-Khrustalny, Moscow-Tovarnaya;
c) from a combination of an article or particle with a nominative part of speech, for example: Le Creusot(city), La Carolina(city), De-Kastri(bay).

Note. Geographical names are written separately:

a) consisting of an adjective and a noun following it, or a numeral and a noun following it, for example: White church, Nizhny Tagil, Velikie Luki, Yasnaya Polyana, Seven Brothers;
b) representing combinations of first and last names, first names and patronymics, for example: village Lev Tolstoy, station Erofey Pavlovich.

Names of settlements, the first part of which includes: Ust-, salt-, top- etc., as well as some names of settlements with the first part new-, old-, upper, lower- etc., except for those whose continuous spelling is fixed in reference books, on geographical maps, etc., for example: Ust-Abakan, Sol-Iletsk, Verkh-Irmen, Novo-Vyazniki, Nizhne-Rotten, But: Novosibirsk, Maloarkhangelsk, Starobelsk, Novoalekseevka, Verkhnekolymsk, Nizhnedevitsk.

Compound geographical names formed both with and without a connecting vowel from the names of parts of a given geographical object, for example: Austria-Hungary, Alsace-Lorraine, But: Czechoslovakia.

Foreign language phrases that are proper names, names of inanimate objects, for example: Amu Darya, Almaty, Pas de Calais, Boulogne-sur-Mer, NY, Palais Royal, Grand Hotel.

Note. This rule does not apply to composite foreign-language names of literary works, newspapers, magazines, enterprises, etc., expressed in Russian letters, which are written separately if they are highlighted in quotation marks in the text, for example: "Standard Oil", "Corriero della Roma".

Floor-(half) followed by the genitive case of the noun if the noun begins with a vowel or consonant l, For example: half a turn, half an apple, half a lemon, But: half a meter old mother, Masha the frolic, Anika the Warrior.

Note 1. A hyphen is not written between the defined word and the one-word application preceding it, which can be equated in meaning to an adjective, for example: handsome son.

Note 2. If the word or application being defined is itself written with a hyphen, then a hyphen is not written between them, for example: social democrats mensheviks.

Note 3. The hyphen is also not written:

a) in combination of a common noun with the following proper noun, for example: Moscow city, Volga river, playful Masha;
b) in a combination of nouns, of which the first denotes a generic concept, and the second a specific concept, for example: bird finch, magnolia flower;
c) after words citizen, comrade, sir and so on. in combination with a noun, for example: citizen judge
§ 132. A semicolon is placed between common homogeneous members of a sentence, especially if there are commas inside at least one of them, for example:

In the darkness the same unclear objects were vaguely visible: in some distance a black wall, the same moving spots A; next to me was the croup of a horse, which, wagging its tail, spread its hind legs wide And; back in a white Circassian coat, on which a rifle in a black case swayed and the white head of a pistol in an embroidered holster was visible e; the light of a cigarette illuminating a brown mustache, a beaver collar and a hand in a suede glove(L. Tolstoy).

There were people from the city and from villages and villages, detained on suspicion of being Soviet workers, partisans, communists, Komsomol members s; people who have offended the German mundi by action or word R; (Krylov).

Only once - and even then at the very beginning - did an unpleasant and harsh conversation take place(Furmanov).
1. A common application, placed after a qualified noun, if it is necessary to emphasize the shade of independence of such an application, for example:
The senior constable - a gallant elderly Cossack with stripes for long-term service - ordered to “form up”(Sholokhov).

In front of the doors of the club - a wide log house - workers with banners were waiting for guests(Fedin).
1. A group of homogeneous members standing in the middle of a sentence, for example:
Usually, from the upper villages - Elanskaya, Vyoshenskaya, Migulinskaya and Kazanskaya - Cossacks were taken into the 11-12th army Cossack regiments and into the Ataman Life Guards(Sholokhov).

l; A semicolon is placed between groups of independent clauses, as well as between groups of subordinate clauses related to the same main clause, if it is necessary to indicate the boundaries between groups of clauses as opposed to the boundaries between individual clauses, for example:
There were many crows in the garden, their nests were covered with the tops of trees, they circled around them and croaked. And; sometimes, especially in the evening, they fluttered up in hundreds, making noise and raising others X; sometimes one will quickly fly from tree to tree, and everything will calm down...(Herzen).

People of this party said and thought that everything bad comes mainly from the presence of a sovereign with a military court at the army, that that vague, conditional and wavering instability of relations that is convenient at court, but harmful in the army, was transferred to the army. And; that the sovereign needs to reign, and not control the army, that the only way out of this situation is the departure of the sovereign and his court from the army And;
They were silent for two minutes, but Onegin came up to her and said : “You wrote to me, don’t deny it”(Pushkin).

At the end of the work, Peter asked Ibrahim : “Do you like the girl with whom you danced the minuet at the last assembly?”(Pushkin).

And I thought : “What a heavy and lazy fellow he is!”(Chekhov).

Note. The group of sentences that contain direct speech should be distinguished from complex sentences with a subordinate clause: a comma is placed before the subordinate clause, as usual, and at the end of it - a sign required by the nature of the entire complex sentence, for example:

I thought about what a heavy and lazy fellow he is.

I tried to remember where I was on that day exactly a year ago.

Will he again remind you of what happened a year ago? Whether Stolz did anything for this, what he did and how he did it, we don’t know (Dobrolyubov).
§ 177. A dash is placed as an additional decimal place to indicate a transition from increase to decrease in a period, for example:

Oh, if it's true that in the night,
When the living rest
And moon rays from the sky
They slide onto the grave stones,
Oh, if it's true, what then
Silent graves are empty, -
I'm calling the shadow, I'm waiting for Leila:
To me, my friend, here, here!(Pushkin).

In the 1800s, at a time when there were no railroads, no highways, no gas, no stearin light, no springy low sofas, no furniture without varnish, no disillusioned young men with glass, no liberal female philosophers, nor the lovely lady camellias, of which there were so many in our time, in those naive times when, leaving Moscow for St. Petersburg in a cart or carriage, they took with them a whole home-cooked kitchen, drove for eight days along a soft, dusty or dirty road and they believed in Pozharsky cutlets, Valdai bells and bagels; when tallow candles burned on long autumn evenings, illuminating family circles of twenty and thirty people, at balls wax and spermaceti candles were inserted into candelabra, when furniture was placed symmetrically, when our fathers were still young not only because of the lack of wrinkles and gray hair, but they shot for women, from the other corner of the room rushed to pick up accidentally or not accidentally dropped handkerchiefs, our mothers wore short waists and huge sleeves and solved family matters by taking out tickets; when the lovely camellia ladies hid from the daylight; in the naive times of the Masonic lodges, the Martinists of the Tugendbund, in the times of the Miloradovichs, Davydovs, Pushkins, - in the provincial town of K. there was a congress of landowners and the noble elections ended(L. Tolstoy).

One of the most joyful moments in writing is when the last sentence of a great story, novella or novel is completed. All the work is behind us, my head is a little dizzy from euphoria, I want to show the text to readers as soon as possible and hear their opinion. But is all the work really over? Anyone who has written more than a couple of pages of text at least once in their life already guesses that no. It is worth closing the file or page with the work, leaving it for several hours and then re-reading it. After such a break, it turns out that not everything is so smooth in the new beautiful text: typos, inaccuracies, and even the most ordinary errors are immediately found. It is clear that the text cannot be left in this form.

To help you remember the rules known from school, we are starting a series of short notes about not the most obvious mistakes. And the first question to consider is when to put a comma before “even though” and “although.”

A comma before the conjunctions “although” and “though”: the shortest rule

If you do not go into philological subtleties, but approach the issue from the practical side, then it is easy to derive an intuitive rule. It says: if a sentence can be reformulated so that it begins with the part where there is “although”, and then a “but” can be placed before the second part, then a comma is needed before the “although”.

“She bought herself a black beret, although she never liked black.”

Let's change it to check:

“She never liked black, but she bought herself a black beret.”

Comma before the word “at least” as a particle

Everything is simple here too. You don’t even need to remember what a particle is. If the word “at least” in a sentence cannot be replaced with “although” (and they are so similar!), then this is a particle to enhance the meaning and add liveliness to speech. A comma is never needed in such cases.

“You should at least tell me what you need,”
“He was always a little fighter!”

Comma before "at least"

As in the previous case, this is a particle, which means no commas are required. You just need to remember that a comma is definitely needed for other reasons. If you see that if you just drop “at least”, then a comma is definitely needed, add it. In this case, it is not “at least” that influences, but another grammatical situation.

Examples just with a particle:

“You should at least give me your hand”
“I need at least one book on neuroscience”

An example when a comma is not placed because of “at least”:

“Why did he behave like that yesterday, at least now it’s clear to everyone”

If you just throw out “at least”, you get:

“Why he behaved like that yesterday is now clear to everyone.”

Comma before “at least” in the meaning of the example

If “at least” is combined with personal, indefinite and demonstrative pronouns, then a comma is not needed. Such combinations will include “at least who”, “at least some”, “at least somewhere”, “at least something”, “at least where” and the like.

“I need at least someone who understands!”
“I want to go somewhere today”
“I want to cook at least something from fish for dinner”

A comma before “although” is needed if it is a participle.

We must remember that there is also a simple verb “to want” with a gerundial derivative from it. This case is immediately obvious, because then the word “although” has the semantic meaning “desiring.” In this case, a comma will always be needed.

“Sveta said this, although it offended me”

It can be easily reformulated by replacing it with “wishing”:

“Sveta said this wanting to offend me”

Comma before "although"

In this case, a short rule will come to the rescue: if “although” can be replaced with “although” (and vice versa) without damaging the meaning, then this is a union. Which means a comma is needed.

There are a number of words in the Russian language (for example, introductory words) that require commas to separate them; Obviously, it is precisely this fact that influences the consciousness of the writers in this case and makes one doubt whether the word “what” is separated by commas, whether a comma is placed before “what” or “after”. But these issues are solved much more simply and in a completely different way. The essence of the rule is not that it is necessary to somehow punctuate the word “what” - it simply requires signs between parts of a complex sentence.

The word “what” is separated by commas

On both sides

Can there be a comma after "what"? Yes, but this is not related to the conjunction itself or the conjunction word. It’s just that after it there is something that in itself requires commas: an introductory construction, a separate phrase, etc. The comma before “what,” which separates parts of a complex sentence, is not affected in any way.

He was surprised that, having noticed the charming Sonya, his acquaintances were trying to quickly sneak away. (after “what” is an adverbial phrase)
Ignat agreed that it looked like we wouldn’t have time to get to the city today. (after “what” is an introductory word)

Before the word

Why do commas even appear in the word “what”? “What” is a conjunction or pronoun, often acting as a connective word. It connects parts of a complex sentence. And in this case, except for rare exceptions, which are discussed below, a comma is required. The sign is always placed before the conjunction - this is the answer to the frequent question “Is a comma placed before the “what” or after?”

He didn't tell me what was in the envelope.
We thought he had already returned from a trip abroad.

No comma needed

Is there always a comma before “what” or not?

1. Usually a comma is used, but there is an exception. We are talking about complex sentences with homogeneous subordinate clauses connected by the conjunction “and”. These are sentences in which the main clause is joined by two (sometimes more) subordinate clauses that are similar in meaning. They answer the same question, although they may be joined by different unions. If there is an “and” between them, then a comma is not placed before the second conjunction.

He told me what happened in the office and what he thought about it. (told you about what?)
The child quickly understands what actions it is better not to do and what happens if the prohibition is violated.

2. Sometimes the combination with the conjunction “what” is not a subordinate clause; then the comma is not needed. This is not difficult to check: without the part of the phrase with the conjunction “that,” the sentence loses its meaning.

They will always find something to ban.
He has something to say.

3. Of course, there is no need to break stable expressions like “just now” with a comma.

The film has just started.
We will never back down!

4. Compound conjunctions can be formalized using commas in different ways; it depends on the author's intention: whether the comma is placed before the entire construction or in the middle.

He was late because he overslept again.
He was late because he overslept again. (but if before the conjunction there are words like “exactly”, “only”, etc., a comma must certainly be before “that”: He was late precisely because he overslept)