Comma before these sentence-ending words? These are verbatim utterances, so words cannot be deleted. • I'm quite happy, actually. • I'm not going, then. • It is quite difficult, indeed. • I'm not going, either. • Is he going to the meeting, too? • Mike and Joe scored 25 points and 33 points, respectively. Thanks
IMO, the commas are acceptable in all of the sentences. But they're not needed in some of them: • It is quite difficult indeed. • I'm not going either. • Is he going to the meeting too?
I agree with ChickenFreak. Some of these sentences read better without the comma. The rules about these things aren't hard-and-fast; they're just guidelines. As I keep saying here, read it aloud. If it sounds better without that little comma pause, then don't use the comma. If it sounds better with the pause, then by all means use the comma.
It's more shades of meaning and emphasis than how the sentence sounds aloud. The comma often shows the last word is an added afterthought. It's a bit like extra info in brackets. So you can have: I don't like it, really. = I don't like it (not really). or I don't like it really. = I don't much like it.
