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When an insect lands on one of them, the leaf snaps shut***,***trapping the creature inside like a prisoner behind bars.

Why does put the comma before trapping?

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  • Who wrote this sentence? Please tell us the source of the quote. What do you think is the purpose of commas? Have you studied commas in English writing?
    – James K
    Jul 21, 2020 at 22:51
  • I looked for the usage of the comma, but I did not find any rules to explain the comma in this sentence. This is why I asked here.
    – fanacc
    Jul 21, 2020 at 23:41
  • thank you, but please provide extra details! Who wrote this sentence?
    – James K
    Jul 21, 2020 at 23:47
  • The leaf snaps shut. The effect of this is to trap the insect. The comma marks a natural pause in the sentence.
    – Kate Bunting
    Jul 22, 2020 at 8:11
  • Ah! venus fly traps!
    – Samuel Muldoon
    Sep 25, 2022 at 2:30

1 Answer 1

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Your original sentence was,

When an insect lands on one of them, the leaf snaps shut, trapping the creature inside like a prisoner behind bars.

You asked why there was a comma.

When people recite English out-loud, they breathe in and out of their lungs. The commas show where people transition between breathing in or breathing out.

  1. When an insect lands on one of them (BREATHING-OUT)
  2. pause
  3. The leaf snaps shut (BREATHING-IN)
  4. pause
  5. trapping the creature inside (BREATHING-OUT)
  6. pause
  7. like a prisoner behind bars. (BREATHING-IN)

It is standard practice to insert a comma anytime that people pause in their breathing. periods dots or full-stops are also used when people pause in their breathing.

The original sentence can be re-written as two separate sentences:

When an insect lands on one of the leaves, the leaf snaps shut.
The leaf traps the creature inside like a prisoner behind bars.

The presence of commas (,) within a sentence almost always indicates that the sentence can re-written as the concatenation of two or more simpler sentences.

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  • A comma often coincides with a pause, but this rule is not reliable. One would not write a comma if the reason for the pause is to think of the best word. Conversely, a comma can help clarify sentence structure even if a pause is unlikely.
    – Anton Sherwood
    Sep 25, 2022 at 4:39

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