In this sentence "They waste their time, thinking that they would make up the loss in future." kindly explain me the reason for usage of a comma before the word THINKING.
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1There's no grammatical need, but this might be used to suggest place for the speaker to pause slightly.– DavoCommented Jul 21, 2020 at 12:14
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1It helps to clarify that they waste their time and they think they will make up the loss, instead of the less likely meaning that they are occupying the wasted time with thoughts of making up the loss.– PeterCommented Jul 21, 2020 at 12:29
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2What @Peter said. Without the comma, it's at least possible to parse adverbial thinking [blah blah] as applying solely to the preceding verb - to waste [time] (i.e. - the adverbial element specifies how the time was wasted, by using it to have those thoughts). As opposed to with the comma, which introduces enough separation between the two clauses that we naturally see what follows the comma as a "sentence adverb" - effectively specifying why the time was wasted, not how..– FumbleFingersCommented Jul 21, 2020 at 12:56
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1 Answer
Agreeing with @Peter
"They waste their time thinking that they would make up the loss in future."
This could be construed to mean, they waste their time by spending it thinking. In other words they are sitting around actively "thinking that they would make up for the loss". That would be a big waste of time.
"They waste their time, thinking that they would make up the loss in future."
This means that, because they believe that they can make up the loss later, they are wasting their time by playing cards/drinking/talking about inconsequential matters etc. instead of trying to make up the loss now or at least planning for it.
answered Jul 21, 2020 at 12:36
