I'm always unsure how to correctly use punctuation with these sort of sentences. He had no power to help anyone, and even if he did, what could he do? Is that correct?
I think I would have the comma after 'and' He had no power to help anyone and, even if he did, what could he do?
- He, had no power, to help, anyone, and even, if, he did, what, could he, do? I want to answer the question because if he had power, there are a multitude of options, and alternatives. Fly there, get her back, physically impose himself on the beach, puncture the volleyball, remember only a summer fling - for her. Or shoot the bastard(s), both of them at dinner, candlelit, shoot the violin player, swallow their thorny rose upon the table and walk away in his pain [solo], sell her house while she is away. There's always something can be done.
As @Brindy says, the comma should go after and; this makes even if he did into a sub-clause, which by definition can be removed without affecting whether the sentence makes sense; do that with the original and you get an incomplete sentence. Amended He had no power to help anyone and, even if he did, what could he do? Original He had no power to help anyone, and even if he did, what could he do? Although the sentence seems somewhat tautologous; there being nothing he could do implies powerlessness.
But when you say the sentence out loud, the pause is before 'and'. At least it is for my speech pattern. Isn't that the purpose of a comma, to indicate a slight pause?
No. There are specific uses for a comma, and just because you run out of breath isn't one of them. But, do you really pause for breath before the and? He had no power to help anyone and even if he did what could he do? He had no power to help anyone and even if he did what could he do? Taking it your way, you could remove the middle section as if it were a sub-clause; the problem is you then leave yourself with a run-on sentence; if you put a comma in at that point, you end up with a comma splice.
I kinda agree with @OurJud. When I say it out loud, I pause after the "anyone". This is the whole reason I had trouble with where the comma goes to begin with. From what I understand, @Shadowfax is correct about the comma isolating the clause but when spoken it comes out awkward to me with the comma after "and."
It does, but as @matwoolf says you could always eliminate the debate and change it to: He had no power to help anyone. Even if he did, what could he do? Which sounds just as good to me.
I hear the same pause before "and" as @OurJud and @doggiedude. Which is why, to me, it sounds like it would be two sentences. Either as the above post--"He had no power to help anyone. Even if he did, what could he do?" Or--"He had no power to help anyone. And even if he did, what could he do?" I suppose the difference between those two sentences is a tone/style debate. But I think people are hearing the pause before "and" because it is naturally a full stop.
When I read it out loud the natural pause is after 'and'. It may be safer to split into two sentences.
In the example above, I have changed it into two sentences now, but was more interested in how it should be correctly formatted in a single sentence. I also have trouble with dialogue tags with questions. "Why should I?" He said. "Why should I," he said? "Why should I?" he said.
"Why should I?" he said. I asked the exact same question a couple of days ago. The line between quotes is independent, therefore the capital after a question mark rule doesn't apply. Spence beat me to it.
Forget the pause thing. I know many of us are taught that commas should go where we pause in speech, but it's not true - just a lazy way of teaching kids, because correctly placed commas often correlate with pauses. But it's not always, and that's not their purpose. Use @Shadowfax's method.