English Language & Usage Asked by HNG on April 13, 2021
I am having trouble figuring out if any of the following sentences is grammatically correct:
(A) People perceive him as manipulative, and therefore do not trust him.
(B) People perceive him as manipulative, and therefore not trusting him.
(C) People perceive him as manipulative, therefore not trusting him.
I understand the “and” is a conjunction and generally connects two independent clauses, but what about “and therefore”? If “and therefore” functions as a conjunction, then (A) would be incorrect because “do not trust him” is not an independent clause. Is this correct?
(B) and (C) also look suspicious to me, but I can’t explain why.
Therefore is defined in [Merriam-Webster] as:
[Adverb] for that reason : because of that
Therefore, it is not a conjunction which doesn't require a coordinate conjunction such as "and", "but", etc. In otherwords, you need to use a conjunction or semi-colon before therefore to complete a sentence.
People perceive him as manipulative, and therefore (people) do not trust him.
The above sentnece is the only one which is grammatically correct as there is "and" as a conjunction and "people" is omitted as it is repeated. "(people) do not trust him" is an independent clause.
Or:
People perceive him as manipulative; therefore, they do not trust him.
In (B) and (C), they don't work as "and therefore not trusting him" and "therefore not trusting him" are not independent clauses.
Correct answer by user140086 on April 13, 2021
I believe that a comma should appear before the word and, and after the word therefore, because after the word therefore, there is a soft pause. A soft pause usually indicates that a comma should be used after the soft pause in a sentence. Here is how I believe the sentence should be written: "People perceive him as manipulative, (soft pause) and therefore, (soft pause) do not trust him."
I am guessing that I am probably wrong about this.
Answered by Daniel Bovee on April 13, 2021
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