I'm having a problem with puntuation.Which sentence is correct? Are both of them wrong? 1) Three is a number, so is four, but three is a prime number. 2) Three is a number. So is four, but three is a prime number. Thanks in advance.
The first one is a comma splice (a grammatical error). Any time you have two complete sentences that could stand on their own and glue them together with just a comma, you've got a comma splice. The second one looks fine to me. (And if Grammarly is telling you that #1 is correct, then this is another thing Grammarly is NOT useful for.)
According to Wikipedia at least, independent clause can be joined by a comma is you use a conjoing word like "but" or, in this case, "so". I believe this works but second is also fine.
Thanks @BayView and @Justin Thyme. I guess, then: 1) Would be ok in a Spanish sentence. 2) Would be ok in English.
"So" isn't functioning as a conjunction in this case. If the sentence were "Three is a number, so that means three is the right answer,", then "so" would be operating as a conjunction and the sentence would be grammatically correct. But if "so" were a conjunction here, that would mean what follows the conjunction would also have to be capable of functioning as a complete sentence. "Is four" isn't a complete sentence, so "so" isn't operating as a conjunction.
I'm waffling as little, because if we changed "so" to "as", I feel like the sentence would be okay, and I'm really not sure what the difference is between "so" and "as". Three is a number, as is four. > sounds okay to me, but according to my previous logic it shouldn't. ETA: Except "As is four" wouldn't stand as an independent sentence, and "So is four" does stand as an independent sentence. I'm really not sure what role "so" is playing, here... is it somehow the subject of the sentence? No, I think "four" is the subject... Damn, I'm confusing myself. @Wreybies ? Help?
My current version of thoughts - "so" in the original sentence is functioning as a synonym for "also", and the sentence/phrase is inverted somehow. So "so is four" means "four is also". But I'm not really sure how many synonyms and reconstructions we're allowed to use before grammar loses all meaning...
Complete sentence: Three is a number Clause (incomplete sentence): So is four Complete sentence: Three is a prime number The clause needs to be tacked onto a sentence, and it must follow on from an earlier sentence because you used "so". I think the first in your list is the better construction. A comma splice exists where there is no conjunction. "So" is a conjunction. The first example is therefore not a comma splice. In modern English, you can also start a sentence with a conjunction like "But": Three is a number, so is four. But three is a prime number. I like my example best as it involves less convolution.
As a parenthetical phrase, #1 is fine. Parentheticals can be complete sentences and I wouldn't see that as a comma splice.
I think I still see a comma splice in the original, but I'll defer to Wreybies. But this one is DEFINITELY a comma splice. ETA: And I'll fight Wreybies about it if he disagrees!
To the OP, while I have you on the topic... Dude, what is the deal with comma splices in Spanish!?!?!?!?!??! I have checked with the RAE and the rules for where to end a sentence in Spanish, and how you end it (with a period / full stop) are the same in Spanish and in English, but... I get tons of documents to translate where the only time you see a period is at the end of the paragraph, and the paragraph itself is one, huge, monster accumulation of comma splices. I'm like, THESE ARE SEPARATE SENTENCES!!! WHERE ARE THE PERIODS!?!?!?! Atentamente, Traductor A. Frustrado
@Wreybies , while you're here... Does this seem right to you? I've come to accept your parenthetical interpretation of the original sentence, but in this reconstruction "so is four" doesn't seem like a parenthetical anymore, and I don't think "so" is functioning as a conjunction, so I think "Three is a number, so is four" is back to being a comma splice. I don't see "so" as being a conjunction, here. I guess it kind of comes down to whether "So is four" is a complete sentence. I feel like it is, but I don't have the first clue how I'd explain its grammatical structure...
I'm totally against that kind of "Morcilleo Lingüistico". I'm in the team with the banner: Give each sentence its space. I don't know if those comma-spliced documents you're imposed to translate are so technical that need to be writen like that, but I assure you it's not common practice here in Spain. We barely use semicolon in Spanish for that very reason. However, I found a lot of semicolons in the English sci fi books that I'm translating. I have to chop them into separated short Spanish sentences.
They are documents that come to us from the judicial system of the Republic of Colombia. And yes, they are written in the most flowery, most convoluted kind of Spanish. No one is "yo", but instead "este bien humilde servidor bajo el ojo del Sagrado Señor en Su sancto cielo, blah, blah, blah..." Tanto azúcar que te da diabetes. I'm like, stop, you're not Cervantes. Regardless, once they get past all that and down to the technical aspects of the document, they still commit what to my eyes are comma splice after comma splice. I know that Spanish allows for much longer sentences than English does, stylistically, but when a sentence finally comes to its conclusion, it's done. Put a period, for goodness sake!
