Are the commas needed in the sentence?

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Tan Elaine

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Eileen(,) whose dog is lost(,) is depressed.

Are the commas optional?

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SoothingDave

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I would use the commas.
 

Barb_D

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Otherewise it sounds like you have a bunch of women named Eileen and you're using "whose dog is lost" to identify which of them you mean.
 

konungursvia

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You could use dashes or parentheses, so no they are not mandatory. But some parenthetical isolation of the dependent clause is required. In fact the comma pair proposed are merely an adaptation of the most suitable punctuation for such cases, the parentheses. They are, in fact, called parenthetical commas. ;)
 

Tan Elaine

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You could use dashes or parentheses, so no they are not mandatory. But some parenthetical isolation of the dependent clause is required. In fact the comma pair proposed are merely an adaptation of the most suitable punctuation for such cases, the parentheses. They are, in fact, called parenthetical commas. ;)

Thanks, Konungursvia.

Could you please elaborate so that I have a clearer picture of your answer? I am sorry about having to ask you to explain again, but it is because my command of English is not good enough. Thanks.
 

Tan Elaine

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Thanks, Konungursvia.

Could you please elaborate so that I have a clearer picture of your answer? I am sorry about having to ask you to explain again, but it is because my command of English is not good enough. Thanks.
Could someone please help? Thanks.
 

Raymott

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Could someone please help? Thanks.
He's saying, simplifying a little, that I was wrong in saying that the commas are mandatory because you could write "Eileen (whose dog is lost) is depressed." or "Eileen - whose dog is lost - is depressed." instead.
By the same token, I guess, the commas are not mandatory because you could write, "Eileen is depressed because her dog is lost."
However, it remains that if the two choices are i) that sentence with commas, and ii) that sentence with the commas removed and nothing added, the only correct choice is i) - which is what I meant by calling the commas mandatory.
 

Tan Elaine

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Thanks, Raymott, for the detailed explanation.
 

Tan Elaine

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He's saying, simplifying a little, that I was wrong in saying that the commas are mandatory because you could write "Eileen (whose dog is lost) is depressed." or "Eileen - whose dog is lost - is depressed." instead.
Are the above sentences in bold a common way of punctuation by native speakers?

Thanks.
 
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SoothingDave

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I think most people would use commas. There is nothing wrong with commas here.
 

konungursvia

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I just found this thread again. Yes, the dashes are very common with native speakers. But using hyphens is not quite correct.
- hyphen
-- dash (two or three times as long).
 

Raymott

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I just found this thread again. Yes, the dashes are very common with native speakers. But using hyphens is not quite correct.
- hyphen
-- dash (two or three times as long).
That's true, but it's very common to use a hyphen for a dash in places such as this, given that computers don't have a dash key. In fact, what you've written isn't a dash; it's two successive hyphens.
I used to say that two hyphens were necessary to make a dash - in fact I've made the same claim here, I think, a few years ago - but I was persuaded otherwise.
The main difference between a dash and a hyphen is that hyphens cannot be separated by spaces. This is a hyphenated-word. This is dash - there is a difference. They can't be confused, because of the spacing.
I do use proper dashes in printed materials and academic assignments and articles (though I'd never try to pass off two successive hyphens as a dash in that context, especially if I were arguing that hyphens aren't dashes.)
 
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