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I've seen conflicting answers on other websites about whether or not it is grammatically correct to add a comma after the word "Sometimes" in examples such as:

Sometimes, we are unable to provide assistance.

Is the comma in the above sentence correct?

I looked at this post on Quora. Answers range between commas being for readability to being used to distinguish emphasis. I looked at questions on this site discussing when it is appropriate to use commas, but they did not answer this question. To clarify my question, would the quoted sentence have the same meaning and be grammatically correct regardless of the comma?

JJJ
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R Balasubramanian
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  • Please link your question to the conflicting answers you've seen. It would also help to tell us any questions on this site that you've already looked at in your search for the answer to your question. – MetaEd Jul 19 '18 at 18:31
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    Commas cannot be grammatically incorrect. Ever. Whoever said that doesn't even know what grammar is and you should not be listening to him. This, sentence, right he,re,,, is 100,%,,, gra,mm,ati,cal Englis,h. It's punctuated like I've fallen asleep at the keyboard, but as far as grammar is concerned, it is absolutely impeccable. – RegDwigнt Jul 19 '18 at 20:31
  • Then how would you go about deciding when to use commas? At one point I remember learning that they separated clauses, but I'm not sure if this is accurate. – R Balasubramanian Jul 19 '18 at 20:33
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    Commas do matter -- but 'sometimes' is a temporal noun, which we know must be adverbial, so the comma is redundant. – AmI Jul 19 '18 at 23:13
  • I hate to say it, but the answer is "sometimes". – Hot Licks Jul 20 '18 at 01:50

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