Incorrect: Your mom mentioned that, you were upset.Ĭorrect: Your mom mentioned that you were upset. Incorrect: Your mom mentioned, that you were upset. A restrictive clause contains essential information. Relative clauses can be restrictive or nonrestrictive. In particular, you shouldn’t use a comma before or after that when it’s used to join the main clause with a restrictive relative clause.Ī relative clause is a type of subordinate clause that starts with a relative pronoun, such as that, who, when, which, or where. This means you shouldn’t use a comma when that is functioning as an adjective, pronoun, determiner, adverb, or conjunction. So when shouldn’t you use a comma before or after that? When there’s no need for a parenthetical comma, or when that is not part of a list. In the example below, the comma is acting as an Oxford comma, rather than a parenthetical comma. You should also use a comma after that when it’s a term at the start or in the middle of a list. If the parenthetical phrase occurred at the end of the sentence, there would be a period after that, rather than a comma. He threw a bar stool across the room, though I didn’t witness that, and was thrown out of the party.
This is because the comma is acting as a closing parenthetical comma.
Which dress is your favorite? This one, that one, or the other one?Ī comma after that is necessary if it occurs at the end of a parenthetical element in the middle of a sentence.Normally, a comma would not precede the first term in a list. It’s also grammatically correct to include a comma before that when it’s used in the middle of a list. Here, the clause that is is an introductory parenthetical phrase within a larger parenthetical element-one that begins with that and ends with Argentina. The South American countries, that is, Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina, were doing very well economically.This is a shortened version of that is to say. In these contexts, the comma acts as a parenthetical comma that offsets the parenthetical expression.Īnother way to use a comma before that is when writing the parenthetical phrase that is. He doesn’t want to go to university, that much is obvious, he just wants to please his parents.I won’t make that mistake again, that’s for sure.These punctuation markers are a useful way to identify non-restrictive information.Ī comma before that is necessary when it introduces a parenthetical phrase in the middle or at the end of a sentence.
These can include commas, curved brackets, square brackets, or dashes. Parenthetical phrases always need enclosing with punctuation marks.
If you remove it from the sentence, the meaning remains the same. In the example above, “ that girl sitting in the red chair” provides extra information, or what’s referred to as non-essential or non-restrictive information.
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