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I was criticised for the usage of a comma before the subordinating conjunction 'if'. The sentence was "Sorry, if this was in any way unpleasant..."

I was under the impression that comma usage in English is fairly free and if there is a little pause in the sentence, it may be a good idea. I guess, I used it as an alternative to the internet colloqualism "Sorry! if this was unpleasant..."

Are there any hard and fast rules that we can have recourse to for this problem?

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  • I've noticed that "Sorry if..." acts as a lead-in to many insincere apologies—or non-apologies. It begins by offering, in place of an unconditional apology, a quasi-apology conditioned on some proviso that may or may not hold. Further, the proviso is often couched in terms of the implicit shortcomings of the person supposedly being apologized to: "Sorry if my innocent joke offended you [because you are thin-skinned and have no sense of humor]." I prefer disclaimers that are prefaced by "I hope this wasn't..." rather than by "Sorry if this was..."; and I like apologies that are unconditional.
    – Sven Yargs
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 7:42
  • Thanks. That's well observed and I would agree that it's better not to construct such sentences with 'but.' Good manners, however, are sometimes perceived as insincere, when they are really conventions that seek to acknowledge the other person's feelings ('How are you?'). If they are seen - and used - in this way, they are quite friendly.
    – Philipp
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 18:31

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Comma usage, like all punctuation, is a matter of style for written language. Check your manual of style, either the one you've adopted or the one thrust upon you. The rules in that guide dictate where to place marks to help your readers parse what you've written. The different style guides differ, and they all leave room for judgment, which may have given you the impression that comma usage in English is "fairly free." Pauses in speaking your text, pauses either little or great, don't have much to do with it.

In your example sentence, "Sorry" may be an aside. It may mean something like "I really don't care whether the experience was unpleasant for you or not, but I'm going to pretend otherwise." Such asides are usually set off by commas, so:

Sorry, if this was in any way unpleasant for you, then I hope you realize it was necessary.

On the other hand, you may have meant "I'm sorry that" and elided the "I am"; The object of your sorrow is generally not separated by a comma:

Sorry if this was in any way unpleasant for you, but I hope you realize it was necessary.

Both versions are fairly informal.

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  • Commas are a matter of grammar, not style.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Mar 26, 2019 at 16:12
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Sorry acts as as a sentence in and of itself. It would be more appropriate to use a semicolon if your intention is to say "Sorry," followed by a sentence with context for the sorry.

Alternatively, you could use "Sorry" and a period, but that almost adds too much of a pause.

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  • Have never seen a semicolon after sorry.
    – Stan
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 2:43
  • Thanks! I'm looking for a rule that says my usage of the comma is wrong. Is there such a thing?
    – Philipp
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 2:52

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