3 paragraphs and you picked up on fast typing error that should have said "to stay" instead of "tis tay" cause the O and I are beside each other on the keyboard. wow you got me....
Oh, it was the proximity of the keys and your "fast typing" that caused your error, was it? Not your ignorance? So, you meant to write, "Tos tay"? ............okay............
I won't even try to give you a full lesson in syntax, Bozo, because (a) you don't know what it means, and, (b) your schools didn't bother to teach you, anyway. But it's very simple, when you think about it. Commas are employed as pauses and as accents. In that example, the comma serves the purpose of emphasising the pattern of the sentence, by substituting for the tacit stress which is audible when somebody says that sentence.
If we write, "You're not worth arguing with man." it loses that tacit effect of a pause; not an actual pause of duration, but a pause of tone. Say it to yourself. Between "with", and "man" we change the inflection and timbre of the words. "With" is said on a slightly lower note, and "man" is said on a slightly higher note, and with a follow-through of the vowel. The comma is the synthesis of that.
Hint: We don't write the same way we speak. Rapid speech in an aggressive tone uses inflection and tonal changes and emphases to convey its sense. When we convert that to the written word, we insert commas as de facto pauses, and dashes and semi-colons, etc etc, to help to retain the intent of the spoken sentence. That's why there's a comma between "with" and "man". It is the written equivalent of a subtle emphasis in the sentence. If we leave it out, the sentence sounds rushed and impotent, like a kid who talks too fast; or like a robot.
(cont).
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Egosomnia (791)
2 years ago
The same applies to, "Maybe scale back the gym attendance, and possibly the steroids, too??"
The second comma is a common convention of written English, (which I'm sure you were never taught at school.) It serves to separate and emphasise the phrase, "and possibly the steroids", by bracketing that phrase within the sentence. Again, this is standard English syntax, and I don't expect you to know about it.
My writing it with a question mark was ungrammatical. In that one aspect, you are correct. My reason for doing it that way was to follow common internet practice, which typically converts contentious statements into questions, to avoid the appearance of coercion or browbeating.
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