Comma Splice

Today we started up again with a daily editing lesson from "Fix-It Grammar" by IEW. See my 2025 post on The Chalk Game for more information.

This morning's editing exercise featured a comma splice!

So we reviewed the rules for this, using some of the small black (noun) and red (verb) cards from the Nienhuis Montessori Printed Grammar Cards. The color coding that Montessori uses for Grammar makes it so clear! See my 2019 post on How Montessori Teaches Grammar for more information.

You can add lots of other words if you like, but the heart of a sentence is still the noun and verb.

The boys smile.

✓

The boys and the kitten smile.

✓

The boys ignore and smile.

✓

You can have a noun and verb, multiple nouns with one verb, or multiple verbs with one noun. All of these are valid sentence constructions in English.

You can also have two noun/verb sets but, in that case, there are rules that govern how you combine them.

The countess rang. The child called.

✓

The countess rang because the child called.

✓

The countess rang; the child called.

✓

The countess rang, the child called.

x

When you have two complete ideas, you can make them into two sentences. You can use a "handshake word" (a conjunction). You can use a semicolon. BUT YOU CANNOT JOIN THEM WITH JUST A COMMA.