Today, a random thought about German grammar. The comma rules in German are entirely different than in English, where, complicated though they may be, you can generally get away with putting a comma where you would pause. I tend prefer a bit of comma-overkill, but perhaps I pause too much while speaking. In German, commas belong only 1) in lists of things (as in English)
Maria kaufte einen Rock, ein Sofa und einen Hund. (Hey, did I say the example was going to be reasonable?)
and 2) at the break between subordinate clauses and the (What is the non-subordinate clause called again? I can still diagram the heck out of any sentence you through in front of me, thank you Catholic grammar school, but I no longer remember the names of some parts of speach) main clause. Woe betide you, however, should you put a comma between a prepositional phrase, no matter how long, and the main clause.
Nach einem Spaziergang in der Dämmerung dieses noch so schönen Abends im Frühling (and here you can keep going as long as you would like, as long as you don't use a verb) NO COMMA kaufte Maria einen Rock, ein Sofa und einen Hund.
My German, D., (to somehow distinguish him from everyone else's Germans, lovey human beings in their own right, no doubt) reads through and corrects my "initiativbewerbungen" and other German correspondance before it goes out and of late has had less to change in the text and still a great deal to do with the commas. Ich bin unverbesserlich.
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