Difficult comma question

[jlaipple]

From the official practice Gmats on the GMAC website...

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they

Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

Correct answer and my question:

[spoiler]

Correct answer is A. My problem is that I thought you couldn't use a comma after 'and' with a compound predicate when a subject isn't re-introduce after the the commma. I choose D here and still am not convinced that any of these choices should be correct. Insight?

[/spoiler]

[xcusemeplz2009]

well i am not sure about any rules of comma following and , i may show my way of elimination


Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less, get better gas mileage, allow passengers to get in and out more easily, and have a smoother ride.

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
not able to spot any error

Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,
breaks parallelism .....

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers, in comparison with most sport utility vehicles, and have a lower cost, they

Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,
intended meaning distorted ....means when minivan is carrying seven passengers then it costs less

Minivans, which carry as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles the cost is lower, and they

they is redundant( hide everything b/n commas and then read)

hth[/b]

[jlaipple]

I agree with all of your analysis except for 'A'.

Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,

In my opinion, this needs to either lose the comma ( Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less,) or do something like (Minivans carry as many as seven passengers and, when they are compared with most sport utility vehicles, they cost less,)

I just don't understand how this is correct as written.

[jlaipple]

Bumping in hopes that someone can help explain how the 'correct' answer is actually correct.

[okigbo]

A is definetely the most correct answer. I agree that the comma is not necessary but the sentence is still the only grammatically correct one so it will carry the day.

[nageswarkv]

here is some of comma rules,

Some common rules for comma usage should be observed.

First, commas should be used to separate members of a list.

Example: I went to the store to buy milk, sugar, flower and bread.

Second, commas should be used to separate two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

Example: He went to the bar, and she was alone again.

Third, commas should be used to set off appositive phrases.

Example: The writings of Thomas Aquinas, which are filled with wisdom, are sometimes difficult to interpret.


going by second rule, COMMA seems perfectly ok, its like combining two sentences with conjunction such as 'and'

[hitmewithgmat]

Zero in on "parallelism" for this one.
Minivans(subject) carry(Verb 1) as many as seven passengers and, compared with most SUV(modifier), cost(Verb 2) less, get(Verb3) better gas mileage, allow(Verb 4) passengers to get in and out more easily, and have(Verb 5) a smoother ride.

Key notes:
The key to recognize the concept in this sentence is "and" before "have a moother ride". When we see"and" or "but" come into play, we should know that there must be a "parallelism" going on in the sentence. Look closely. After "and" there is a verb, "have". Aha! It could be "verb parallelism"that we need to focus on. and Bingo! that's exactly what we are looking for.
To keep it simple, it goes like this.
Minivans(subject) carry(V1)....,cost(V2)......,get(V3)...., allow(V4) and have(V5).Eliminate B,D and E for this purpose.
Between A and C, C is incorrect because the sentence is inconsistent. Therefore, the answer is (A) for sure.

p.s: Why D is wrong?
(D)Minivans, carrying as many as seven passengers, compared with most sport utility vehicles, cost less
Minivans(subject)
carrying as many as seven passengers(modifier modifies "minivans")
compared with most SUVs(modifiers modifies "minivans")
The location of two modifiers are not correct. "compared with most SUVs" modifies "carrying as many as seven passegers.
Subject+modifier+modifier is wrong. That's not the intention of the sentence. Therefore, the sentence of (D) is ambiguous.


Hope this helps.

[kamalsinghy]

Hi jlaipple,

I have two cents here. First "compared with ..." is a modifier, so it should be separated by comma.
Here comma after 'and' shows that subject would be same after the conjugated comma ends. So the sentence structure is broken like below:

subject + verb(carry) + object + and , modifier, verb(cost,get, allow, and have).
Now you can raise question that why "and" is placed even before when there is one more 'and' at the end.
So the answer lies in the context. First verb + object is used to tell general statement about minivans, but the rest of other characteristics are told w.r.t. other utility vehicles. There author has separated them by using 'and' but keeps the subject same. Hope that helps. (also keep this in mind about this takeaway)