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Which of the sentences below is correct? My friend said the comma between holiday and can is correct, but I disagree. I feel like the sentence is better structured when you have a period between holiday and can. Please give me some advice. Thanks

  1. We noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July, while most companies observed that day as a holiday, can you please confirm?

  2. We noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July, while most companies observed that day as a holiday. Can you please confirm?

Community
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user142781
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2 Answers2

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We noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July, while most companies observed that day as a holiday. Can you please confirm? ..... this is very correct, so you could say :

While most companies observed that day as a holiday, we noticed you reported working hours for the 4th of July. could you please confirm?

Ayad
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  • Welcome to EL&U. Please support your answer with references. Also, "very correct" is both logically inconsistent and unwieldy English. – Rupert Morrish Jul 09 '18 at 03:45
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Both are grammatically correct but #2 is cleaner. The full stop after the first clause in #2 completes the idea cleanly and follows it up with another complete idea. The comma muddles it a bit and makes the flow slightly more confusing because it combines the thoughts of a statement (first clause) and a question (second clause) in one sentence.

Kace36
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    “Grammatically correct” isn’t really a good term here—it’s a matter of punctuation, not grammar. Using a comma here would not be considered correct by most: it creates a comma splice where two main clauses are joined by nothing but a comma, which is generally considered incorrect punctuation. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 10 '17 at 11:00
  • How can both be "grammatically correct?" – Kris Aug 10 '17 at 11:04
  • @Kris Ok well first off let me say again that grammar and punctuation are not objective subjects. They are not scientific. They are not governed by empirical data or analysis. That being said, yes, there are rules. I agree. You could argue that the, "while most companies...", clause is an appositive quite easily. An appositive would require commas on both sides to set it off and then finish the sentence. I do agree it's a little muddled b/c of the apparent independent nature of the final clause, which ends as a question. I like #2, absolutely, but would not consider #1 incorrect. – Kace36 Aug 11 '17 at 00:00
  • There's no appositive there, though. Think again. – Kris Aug 11 '17 at 05:23
  • @Kris Why do you say that? It's a noun phrase/clause which qualifies 4rh of July. I agree in the fact that I like the #2 option. It's just cleaner. I just don't think either one is technically incorrect or creating a comma splice. I suppose if we wanted to be pedantic we could say it requires a ", so* can you please confirm?*" to be correct. However I sti find it to be acceptable and easily understandable; even potentially correct. That is why I said it the way I did I. The answer, which was to say obviously show that #2 is preferable. – Kace36 Aug 11 '17 at 22:40