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Writing too long sentences is a fairly common error in essays. The writer either ties (fuses) two sentences together without a punctuation mark, or two complete sentences are separated by a comma. Both of these are incorrect.
*=incorrect sentence
You could also use one of the FANBOYS (see Comma rules). The FANBOYS conjuctions are used to give better flow in the reading, so you can combine shorter sentences into longer and use a comma to separate the two main clauses (huvudsatser).
I absolutely love eating barbecued vegetables, and I usually serve them steaming hot accompanied by a mint sauce.
Fused sentences, example
I absolutely love eating barbecued vegetables I usually serve them steaming hot accompanied by a mint sauce. *
The sentence above contains two complete thoughts that are fused together, two complete sentences:
1. I absolutely love eating barbecued vegetables
2. I usually serve them steaming hot accompanied by a mint sauce
The easiest way to fix the problem is to use a full stop (punkt) to separate the two sentences:
I absolutely love eating barbecued vegetables. I usually serve them steaming hot accompanied by a mint sauce.
Use of comma instead of full stop (comma splice, to splice=att hopfoga)
He usually drives his car straight home after work instead of using a public car park, the garage he has at his house is absolutely gigantic. *
In the sentence above, the writer has merged two complete thoughts, two complete sentences into one sentence by using a comma:
1. He usually drives his car straight home after work instead of using a public car park
2. the garage he has at his house is absolutely gigantic
Again, the easiest way to fix the problem is to use a full stop (punkt) to separate the two sentences:
He usually drives his car straight home after work instead of using a public car park. The garage he has at his house is absolutely gigantic.
You could also use one of the FANBOYS:
He usually drives his car straight home after work instead of using a public car park, for the garage he has at his house is absolutely gigantic.
A final, fairly advanced, rule that you need for the exercises below. The semicolon ; can be used to separate sentences if the writer wishes to narrow the gap between two closely related sentences. The semicolon can be seen as somewhere between a full stop and a comma. In essays, use the semicolon sparingly. For a shorter essay, once or twice is a good average. If you are unsure, do not use it at all.
Example:
He has to stay at home tonight; he needs to study for an important grammar test.
As you can see, a lower case (liten bokstav) is used efter the semicolon.
The exercises here are advanced. If you get the answer wrong, you can click to get explanations.
EXERCISES: Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 Exercise 4
This presentation explains the rules for fused sentences and comma splices. It is more advanced and detailed than the explanations above.
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