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What is the correct way to punctuate the following sentence?

  • X can be explained by and obtained out of Y.
  • X can be explained by, and obtained out of, Y.
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"Obtained from" is more commonly used than "obtained out of"- of course it may depend on what your X and Y are. – Jim Jun 10 '12 at 20:27

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

The sentence is grammatical with or without commas, but their presence helps the reader.

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since I am new here, I cannot upvote. But thanks! – Jorge Campos Jun 10 '12 at 18:03
up vote 1 down vote

I would suggest it depends how "parenthetical" you intend the second verb to be.

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up vote 0 down vote

First, I'd recommend you ask your question by stating: "How can I state the following sentence in a grammatically correct way?" (Preferred English style).

I don't really understand how you would use your example. From first glance, it appears that you're being redundant. Here's an example of my interpretation of your question:

"Climate change is caused by increased by pollution."

If that's not it, your two sentences are fairly similar. The only difference is the comma before the "and". This is an Oxford comma and its use is optional.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

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This is not the Oxford comma — whose use, I can but add, is not so much optional as optimal. – tchrist Nov 20 '12 at 23:30

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