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I have written this sentence:
Hed loved her from the start but then; she had that effect on everybody.
Originally, I had a comma after the word 'then' but my Word editor put a green line beneath it and on checking, it would seem a semi-colon would be better. I'm not sure - I wonder if a comma is fine? Sometimes the Word editor has me dithering where years ago I didn't give a second thought to stuff I thought I knew!
Comments
So I'll put:
He'd loved her from the start, but then, she had that effect on everybody.
Much better. *hands round the choccie eclairs*
Are there any eclairs left? But I'm on a diet. Oh all right then, you've twisted my arm - I'll just have one ;-)
Fingers crossed.
Oh, by the way, the eclairs are totally calorie free. In fact, these eclairs have magic cream inside which actually helps you lose weight!
he he!! Just joking!! The eclairs have gone to my head.
Hed loved her from the start but then again, she had that effect on everybody.
I have a thing about the word 'had', treat it like the plague. I think the word has gives it more immediacy.
When talking about commas, I insert them when a sentence sounds like a character/narrator would need to take a breath. As for the semi-colon, I was recently reading a book on style and grammar and they say it should be used to extend a sentence, but it must be relevant.
"He'd loved her from the start, but then, she had that effect on everybody"
If within the text then...
He loved her from the start, but she has that effect on everyone.