"Alas" is a colloquial invariant interjection. It is used to express negative feelings such as grief or frustration. This word can be replaced by the phrase "unfortunately."
Punctuation is a complex science, and a comma is a tricky sign. Often when writing, questions arise about the correctness of its formulation.
The rule, studied back in school years, says that interjections are always separated by commas. And the word "alas" is no exception. But there are deviations from this rule (rare, but they still exist).
Therefore, it is worth figuring out in which cases after "alas" a comma can be safely put on both or on one side, and in which it is worth putting some other punctuation mark (exclamation mark, brackets, period).
The interjection "alas" is separated by commas, if there is no exclamatory intonation during pronunciation: on both sides, if it is in the middle of a sentence; on the one hand, if it is at the beginning or end.
No commas
- If there is a union before the interjection "alas""but". There are commas after and before this combination of “but alas”: “I would really like to come and congratulate you personally, but alas, we are too far apart.”
- If the interjection "alas" is part of the idiom (stable phrase) "alas and ah". The idiom itself is isolated, but there are no punctuation marks directly in it: "I would love to lend you money, alas, I'm broke myself."
Put other punctuation marks
- If the word "alas" acts as an exclamatory interstitial sentence. In this case, after "alas" there is an exclamation point, and the word, being in the middle of a sentence, is separated by such punctuation marks as a dash (less often brackets). It is worth noting that the word that follows it must be written with a lowercase letter: "In this situation - alas! - nothing can be changed."
- If the interjection plays the role of a separate sentence in the text. Then a period or an exclamation mark (in rare cases, a question mark) is simply put after it: "Alas! And your life is miserable!"
