Surely everyone knows that commas are always put in the introductory word. However, one should pay attention to the fact that often students and those who have long graduated from a comprehensive school have great difficulties with such punctuation. With what exactly this is connected, we will consider in this article.
General information
Almost everyone knows that the introductory word is separated by commas. However, only a few can define this part of the sentence.
So, introductory words are those that are formally in no way connected with the members of the sentence. Moreover, they are not, but only express their characteristics and attitude to the information provided.
What parts of speech are they?
It is not enough to know where a comma is placed to highlight introductory words, and where not. After all, in order to apply the rules of punctuation, you should find the very expression. And this is not always an easy task. From a grammatical point of view, such words can be represented by pronouns and nouns (without prepositions and withprepositions), various verbal forms (infinitives, personal forms, adverbs), as well as nominal phraseological units (sometimes verbal) and adverbs.
What are the challenges?
As you know, commas are always put in the introductory word. However, it should be noted that their definition is often difficult. What exactly are they?
- Among the introductory words and similar combinations, there are quite a few that are used in sentences only as introductory, and therefore are always isolated. Let us give an example: if I may say, in my opinion, firstly, and so on. In most cases, exactly the same words can be used both as introductory, and as members of a sentence (circumstances or predicates), and as service words, that is, particles or conjunctions. To distinguish between them, you need to read the entire sentence or paragraph. After all, introductory words appear only in context.
- The second difficulty most students face is that the punctuation of introductory words depends on their environment.
What are introductory words for?
Commas in introductory words should only be used when they are such in the sentence. But how do you tell them apart?
As a rule, introductory words are used in certain sentences for:
- Indication of the degree of reliability of a fact or messageto say, in essence, apparently, naturally, really, etc.).
- Indication of the degree of commonness of any information (as always, it happens, as usual, it happened, as usual, as usual, it happened, it happens).
- Expressions of an emotional assessment of what is being talked about or reported (to amazement, a sinful deed, unfortunately, a well-known thing, to shame, unfortunately, oddly enough, unfortunately, unfortunately, to annoyance, to unfortunately, fortunately, unfortunately, to joy, to surprise, in some way, strange thing, etc.).
- Indications to one or another source of the message (I think, I see, as I believe, as it is known, as they said, they say, as they remember, it is known, I remember, as I remember, according to words, as heard, according to messages, in my opinion etc.).
- The way of expressing thoughts (generally speaking, or rather, as they say, guilty, by the way, roughly speaking, in other words, putting it mildly, in other words, it’s better to say, in other words, to say in a word, as they say, frankly speaking, as don't say anything, in a word, whatever, in short, actually, etc.).
- Indications of the expressive nature of this or that statement (nothing to say, without flattery to say, to tell the truth, if you tell the truth, not by night be said, except for jokes, to tell the truth, between us, frankly, between us speaking, I assure you, to tell the truth, according to my conscience, etc.).
- Indications of the relationship between certain parts of the statement (in any case, on top of everything, the main thing, after all, firstly,mainly, at the same time, so, in general, means, for example, etc.).
- Attention calls (please believe (whether), as you wish, see (whether), understand (whether), listen (those), do not believe, imagine (those), have mercy (those), if you wish, you can (yourself) imagine, you understand, you won’t believe, etc.).
- Expressions of limiting or clarifying a statement (at least without exaggeration, at least to one degree or another).
When are commas not used?
Commas should always be used in introductory words. However, it is difficult to identify them immediately. For example, there is a deep misconception that the following words are introductory: hardly, perhaps, in addition, as if, I suppose, literally, exactly, suddenly, hardly, after all, after all, in the end, meanwhile, it seems, exclusively, even, as if, as if (as if), moreover, by decision (whose), just, allegedly, by decision (whose), approximately, almost, simply, approximately, decisively. But it's not. These expressions are not introductory, and therefore, they do not need to be separated by commas.
Introductory sentences
In addition to introductory words, entire introductory sentences are often used in the text. As a rule, they have a meaning that is very close to the meanings of introductory words or similar combinations. In any case, such sentences (depending on the location in the text) should be separated by commas (rarely dashes).
Examples of tasks
To reinforce the material about introductory words and their isolation,Teachers very often give their students a practical task. As a rule, it is aimed at revealing whether the child has mastered the topic or needs to repeat it again.
So, here is an example of one of these tasks:
You must carefully read the following sentences, which contain numbering. Next, you need to write out all the numbers denoting commas in the introductory word.
- The girl returned the textbook to the library (1) probably (2) even (3) without reading it.
- The sky is covered with clouds. It will (1) probably (2) rain soon.
- An important and (1) should be (2) sad letter should be delivered to him in the morning.
- What (1) could be (2) more important than a cure for cancer?
- Of course (1) she wanted to reward her years of work (3) above all (3) herself.
