Run-ons and comma splices | Syntax | Khan Academy Video Lecture | Complete Course on English Grammar: Upgrade your Speaking & Listening - Personal Skills

hello grammarians hello Rosie hi David
how are you good how are you good today
we are going to talk about run-ons and
comma splices so a run-on sentence is
what happens when two independent
clauses are put together in one sentence
without any punctuation or coordinating
conjunctions like and but or so Rosie
what is a good example of a run-on
sentence
we bought nails we bought a hammer yeah
so we can see that this sentence
contains two two individual independent
clauses so we've got number one we
bought nails
number two we bought a hammer now there
are a couple of different ways we could
make this a legal sentence but right now
as it stands this is a run-on right so
there are a couple ways we could fix
this sentence one way would be just to
add a semicolon in there also you've got
two independent clauses we bought nails
semicolon we bought a hammer right
another way you could do that would be
to just add a comma and then the
conjunction and so you're connecting
those two clauses so this is a run-on
sentence without this and in this comma
and it's called that because it's sort
of like a runaway train you know it
doesn't have enough stoppage in it how I
would put it so that's what a run-on
sentences and now I want to talk about
commas splicing and the word splice not
a super common term if you are neither a
sailor or a film editor but splicing is
a word that originally meant to take two
ropes untangle them and weave them back
together it's a sailor's term related to
rope lines in our case for grammar a
splice a comma splice is an
inappropriate joining of two independent
clauses by using a comma so
so Rosie this is little Toni
crime-fighting pony right so for example
in this sentence I love little Toni to
pony up to the streets it's my favorite
movie in the little Toni franchise very
fine
series of non-existent films the problem
with this sentence is that right now
it's got this comma in the middle of it
and this comma inappropriately joins
these two independent clauses oh and
this whole time I forgot to say two
independent clauses inappropriately
joined by a comma so okay so we've got
independent clause number one remember
this link could stand on its own as a
sentence I love the name of this movie I
love little Toni to pony up to the
streets that could be its own sentence
on its own ended with a period period
it's my favorite movie in the little
Tony franchise period but we have these
two independent clauses right we cannot
join them with just a comma we could say
I love little Tony to pony up to the
streets comma and it's my favorite movie
in the little Tony franchise or as we
did in the previous example we could
also throw in a semicolon which is I
think what I would rather do I love
little Tony to pony up to the streets
semicolon it's my favorite movie in the
little Tony franchise and Rosie you will
notice that I have underlined these
these titles oh yes because these are
the names of published works right even
though we made them up exactly but okay
but for real I would love to see like a
little tawny crime-fighting Pony surly
so to review um when you're looking at a
run-on you're looking at two independent
clauses that are together in one
sentence that are joined inappropriately
without punctuation or conjunctions so
we bought nails we bought a hammer
there's there's not really a place to
know where the division between clauses
is in that and so the thing to do is to
either is to add some kind of is to add
a comma and some and a conjunction or to
combine them using a semicolon the same
deal with a comma splice it's just that
a comma splice is a run-on that hasn't
been
next all the way right the commas being
used but we need some bigger punctuation
in place of the comma something like a
semicolon in order to make a distinction
between those two independent clauses so
that is how you identify and fix run-ons
and comma splices you can learn anything
Dave it out Rosie out