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"Michael and Lucy too, also eventually reveal their wish to always be together even when their relationship is on the brink of destruction."

"Still though, they can’t give up George and, despite knowing they might be on the path to destruction, neither girl can accept defeat and the battle continues.

"Too" in the first sentence and "though" in the second. Is it correct this way or would I have to add another comma? (Still, though, they...; Michael and Lucy, too, also...)

I want it to fit the chicago manual of style, so please bear that in mind. Would The sentences I quoted be correct according to that english style?

Or maybe I should not use comma at all like in this sentence, where the however has no comma.

"The second movie however also includes moments of humor"

I already know that using 2 commas is correct in all the sentences I quoted (please confirm that this also applies to the Chicago English Style though). My question is whether using just 1 comma there would be acceptable according to the Chicago English Style. Or even using no commas at all.

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  • 'Too' and 'also' don't belong next to each other here, with or without a comma. // The addition of a comma before 'though' would do little to improve the quality of the sentence. I'd certainly prefer 'Still, though, they can’t give up George. And, despite knowing they might be on the path to destruction, neither girl can accept defeat.... And the battle continues.' Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 17:29
  • @EdwinAshworth I see, thanks! Would "Still though, they can’t give up George" be incorrect then?
    – The Beast
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 17:58
  • I'd take that as the non-temporal reading if I had to guess. Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 22:20

1 Answer 1

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The second example has to be read with an intonation break between "still" and "though", which justifies a comma there, since those two words do not form a syntactic constituent. That's my personal opinion -- I have no idea what a follower of the Chicago Manual of Style (which I am not one) would say.

However, I have seen the opinion expressed that one should be careful to avoid using lots of commas, so even though there has to be an intonation break before "though", perhaps a stylist would prefer not to use a comma there, because it looks ugly. The absent comma makes the sentence a little harder to understand, but it's still possible. I had to read it twice.

Your first example seems ungrammatical, to me.

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  • Pretend there's no "also" in the first sentence. What would your insight be?
    – The Beast
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 18:57
  • Without a comma before "too", the "too" modifies the preceding compound noun phrase. With a comma before "too", it modifies following verb phrase (or perhaps the entire sentence). I think both are possible. Without the first comma, the meaning is "in addition to others who eventually revealed such a wish". With the first comma, the meaning is "in addition to other things that M and L did".
    – Greg Lee
    Commented Dec 4, 2017 at 23:09
  • And would it work with no commas? "Michael and Lucy too reveal their wish to always be together"
    – The Beast
    Commented Dec 5, 2017 at 13:40
  • No. -----------
    – Greg Lee
    Commented Dec 5, 2017 at 15:22

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