Where to put breath breaks in

Question

But along the way they may just find out that by analyzing why something went horribly wrong, they’ve learned a lot.

Source: https://www.snexplores.org/article/really-learn-fail-then-fail-again

When you read aloud the above sentence, where would you put breath breaks in, if any? I think that your first option would be at the comma (ie after the word "wrong"). Would you ever put a breath break in after the word "that"? Or before that?

I hope that this kind of question will be accepted in this section of the forum. I would greatly appreciate it if you could kindly enlighten me.

Answer 1

Presuming no physical effort (that is: you read not while recovering from a fast run or similar) one breathes about once every 2-3 seconds. Reading the above sentence aloud took me approximately 10 seconds, which in turn means that I breathe about 3-4 times reading it.

Also notice that there is a difference between reading written text and hearing spoken text. When reading you can go back and re-read, but you cannot re-hear. Therefore speakers tend to overpronounce if they want their auditory to get everything they say.

Now, let us split up the sentence into word-groups which belong together:

But
along the way
they may just find out
that
by analyzing
why something went horribly wrong,
they’ve learned a lot.

There you have it. The ends of the lines are the possible places for breathing because emphasizing what belongs together is usually done by inserting a small pause anyway. Like this:

... they may find out - that - by analyzing ...

You do not need to use all of these part-endings for breathing and you may skip some of the (for lack of a better word) "syntactical breaks", but in general these are the places to put them (if any at all).

Answer 2

You may use a comma after "way", but often, people don't use one. In rare cases they use a comma after "but" and one after "way". (but along the way)

You never use a comma after or before "that" when "that" is a conjunction. (This the case of the sentence in the OP.)

• The student said that he would come.

As a relative pronoun, "that" cannot be nonrestrictive, and so you never use a comma after or before "that" when it is a relative pronoun. (You always use a comma before a pronoun that is nonrestrictive, but only "who", "whom", "which" and "whose" can be nonrestrictive.)

• The house that you see over there is for sale. (restrictive)

• The shopkeeper, whose shop had not been open for weeks, was poor. (nonrestrictive)

Additions following comments

User Stuart, comparison with 19th century English, in Ivanhoe

Today some of these commas would not be used; for instance, in "from which it may be inferred, that it was put on by slipping it…" (Ivanhoe) no comma is used. "It seemed to be your opinion, that" (Ivanhoe) would not be written with a comma nowadays (it's their opinion that). There are nevertheless in Ivanhoe uses of the comma before "that" that are still valid, but they are the exception to the rule; they do not occur in simple constructions. "Rely on this, that…" (Ivanhoe) is still written with a comma nowadays, but that is not the plain construction. There is then the case of the introduction of adverbs; the "I am conscious, however, that the slight, unsatisfactory, and …" in Ivanhoe should today still be written in the exact same way, but this is not the plain construction. It would be an error today to write "I am conscious, that…". Introducing "first" in the "inferred" construction above makes the comma valid today (inferred, first, that); I don't think it is necessary though, it is rather optional.

User Edwin Ashworth , alternative modern point of view

The reader might be interested in considering that the term "conjunction" used above is not considered proper in modern linguistics, in which the idea is put forward that this word is not a conjunction; the details as to the demonstration of this fact will have to sought in the literature on the subject.

(Wikipedia) In linguistics (especially generative grammar), a complementizer or complementiser (glossing abbreviation: comp) is a functional category (part of speech) that includes those words that can be used to turn a clause into the subject or object of a sentence. For example, the word "that" may be called a complementizer in English sentences like "Mary believes that it is raining". The concept of complementizers is specific to certain modern grammatical theories. In traditional grammar, such words are normally considered conjunctions. The standard abbreviation for complementizer is C.

Answer 3

Some English teachers like to explain that commas indicate where to take a breath, but that is an oversimplification. English prose does not make any indications of how something should be read out loud. However, there are forms of poetry and music that do indicate meter and where to breathe.

In this case, although there is one comma, I would not take a breath during this sentence. It is long enough that I would be concerned with my audience becoming confused that I am starting a new thought or sentence by taking a breath.