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  • I adapted to the innovative ideas that are different from, or opposite to, my traditional statements.

  • I adapted to the innovative ideas that are different from, or opposite to my traditional statements.

  • the difference between two these sentences is: i took "the comma" out of the second sentence, so what is the difference in meaning between them?
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The first sentence is wrong with that comma after "to". Actually, you have two good options here:

  1. I adapted to the innovative ideas that are different from or opposite to my traditional statements. (No comma at all)
  2. I adapted to the innovative ideas that are different from, or opposite to my traditional statements. (A comma after "from" only)

Reference - Google Books Search for "different from, or opposite to"

The only solution to use a comma after "to", which I know of, is if "different from, or opposite to" starts a sentences:

  • Whether different from, or opposite to, his ideas will not be the same as yours. (Which can be rewritten as "His ideas will be different from, or opposite to yours, but not the same.")
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  • See this example: "You use otherwise to refer in a general way to actions or situations that are very different from, or the opposite to , your main statement" taken from google.jo/amp/s/www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/otherwise – Bavyan Yaldo Aug 23 '17 at 12:04
  • @BavyanYaldo I bet that if you send them (Collins dictionary) this sentence they will remove the comma after "to" since it's really incorrect. – SovereignSun Aug 23 '17 at 12:12
  • There are plenty of people who would put a comma after to. Punctuation conventions vary. – Tᴚoɯɐuo Aug 23 '17 at 14:58
  • @Tᴚoɯɐuo would the meaning change whether we put a comma or not? – Bavyan Yaldo Aug 23 '17 at 17:05
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    I would use the comma after "to" because of rule 3 here, which states: "Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end ..." Since the phase "or opposite to" can be stripped out without affecting the syntax or semantics, the comma at the end is needed. Although, I dislike associating pauses with commas, in this case, the second comma helps with pacing as well. – urnonav Mar 22 '18 at 15:13

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