Parenthetical dash

[DANAU]

Hi,


My understanding is that if the sentence between the parenthetical dashes is removed, the entire sentence should still be complete.

For the sentence below, should the dependent clause “due to the nature of their role” be placed in front of the sentence, or it is acceptable to remain as it is?


" We have a group of staffs who still have to turn up at their plants and offices due to the nature of their role - while most of their fellow teammates are able to work from home - to keep our business going."

 

[jutfrank]

Did you write this sentence? Remember to always tell us this.

There are better ways to structure all the information you want to say, but with the sentence as it currently stands, the phrase in question (which is neither dependent nor a clause) is better placed where it currently is than at the beginning of the sentence.

 

[DANAU]

Did you write this sentence? Remember to always tell us this.

There are better ways to structure all the information you want to say, but with the sentence as it currently stands, the phrase in question (which is neither dependent nor a clause) is better placed where it currently is than at the beginning of the sentence.

Hi jutfrank,

OK, I will remember to make clear the origin of the sentence in future.

I did not write this sentence. It is slightly modified from our in-house message sent from the CEO office.

I understand now why it is not a clause because it does not have a verb. A clause needs to have a subject and a verb.
But can I see it as a phrase because it cannot stand on its on?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi,

My understanding is that if the sentence between theparenthetical dashes is removed, the entire sentence should still be complete.

For the sentence below, should the dependent clause “due tothe nature of their role” be placed in front of the sentence, or it is

acceptable to remain as it is?


" We have a groupof staffs who still have to turn up at their plants and offices due to thenature of their role - while most of their fellow teammates are able to workfrom home - to keep our business going."

Please edit post #1 to add spaces where indicated above. While you're doing that, please also put the whole post in the standard font and font size (the one my post is writtten in).

Remember that when you paste text in, you will need to reformat it so the spaces between words, the line spacing and the font are correct.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The dashes set off a parenthetical phrase. So you can only remove them if you replace them with something else — probably parentheses or commas.

 

[DANAU]

Please edit post #1 to add spaces where indicated above. While you're doing that, please also put the whole post in the standard font and font size (the one my post is writtten in).

Remember that when you paste text in, you will need to reformat it so the spaces between words, the line spacing and the font are correct.

OK emsr2d2, I will take note in future.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Note: "It's not a group of staffs." Better:

- We have staff who . . . .
- We have staff members who . . . .
- We have a group of staff members who . . . .
- We have employees who . . . .
- We have a group of employees who . . . .

 

[jutfrank]

I understand now why it is not a clause because it does not have a verb. A clause needs to have a subject and a verb.

That's right.

But can I see it as a phrase because it cannot stand on its own?

Yes, you can call it a phrase.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . A clause needs to have a subject and a verb. . . .

A sentence needs to have a subject and verb.

 

[jutfrank]

A sentence needs to have a subject and verb.

Sentences and clauses are not the same thing. This is quite a tricky thing to understand since clauses are very well defined in grammar, and sentences very much not so.

Suffice to say, a sentence can consist of either one or multiple clauses, and so can have multiple subjects and multiple verbs. A clause can also have multiple subject-verb valencies, but only when it embeds another clause.

I believe this is right, but I'm not really sure, to be honest. Grammar is not a strong area for me. Anyway, it doesn't really matter for the purposes of this thread.