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Which of the following is correct?

I, too, have seen that movie.

or:

I too, have seen that movie.

The former seems correct to me from examining the inflection with which I would say it, but it looks a little awkward.

Asad Saeeduddin
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  • Neither. The "standard" version would have *no commas at all*. Commas are there to indicate pauses in speech, which wouldn't exist in such an utterance. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '12 at 18:36
  • @FumbleFingers Wouldn't there be a pause after "too"? – Asad Saeeduddin Dec 12 '12 at 18:39
  • Not in normal English speech, no. I guess you could "artificially" introduce a pause, but I don't think you could justify using a comma to convey that in the written form. You'd need to use a bit of a workaround - for example, "I too", said John, "have seen that movie" – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '12 at 18:45
  • @FumbleFingers Pretty everything you wrote there is wrong about commas. I'll provide references when I find the time. – tchrist Dec 12 '12 at 18:58
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    @tchrist: You speak from the American perspective, where commas are often used because some rule of grammar says they have to be. As it says here about the Harry Potter books, The American edition has quite a few more commas than the British. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '12 at 21:59
  • @FumbleFingers Quite obviously most of those changes are complete nonsense. Such dumbing down is actually one of my pet peeves; witness the loss of the Philosopher’s Stone, for example. Even so, they missed some, like changing post to mail, which will surely confuse the little mites. However, I must applaud their steadfast adherence to the lauded Oxford Comma, as well as using commas before a coördinating conjunction that (con)joins two (non-short) independent clauses together. The second of those is a particularly egregious offence, one which every schoolchild remembers being whipped for. – tchrist Dec 12 '12 at 23:17
  • @FumbleFingers Thanks for showing me that. I’d love to chat about it if you ever have the time and the inclination. – tchrist Dec 12 '12 at 23:23
  • @tchrist: I recall reading a while back that the US publishers claimed they'd made "minimal" changes, which seemed at least "credible" to me at the time. But when I just learnt a couple of days ago that they'd felt it necessary to retitle Sorcerer's Stone, I just rolled my eyes. I can see (some) justification in "Americanising" the spelling and punctuation, but things like that just seem patronising to me. Here's a chat room. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '12 at 23:25
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    @FumbleFingers - Perhaps it's also an Americanism, but there would be a pause in speech in that utterance (in my experience), which is why the comma there makes perfect sense. – Lynn Oct 01 '14 at 23:54
  • @Lynn: To be honest, I can't actually imagine a Brit saying OP's literary/poetic version, with or without pauses. The only "normal" version to my ear is "I've seen that movie too" (which definitely doesn't have any pauses so far as I'm concerned). – FumbleFingers Oct 02 '14 at 11:34
  • @FumbleFingers - I have heard people say it, but only when they're trying to sound literary/poetic/ironic. It would be awkward in everyday speech or writing. – Lynn Oct 02 '14 at 21:56

1 Answers1

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You can write both 

I too have seen that movie.

and 

I, too, have seen that movie.

You can even write

I have seen that movie too.

and 

I have seen that movie, too.

You cannot, however, write

I too, have seen that movie.

When an adverb is in the middle of the sentence, you have to either put two commas around it, or you have to avoid commas altogether. When you put the commas in, you indicate that that the adverb is a disjunct. The decision whether it is a disjunct or not is sometimes up to you. You can make it an adjunct (the opposite of disjunct) when you want to emphasize the connection of the adverb to the words around it, or a disjunct when you want to emphasize that it applies to the whole clause.

In many forms of writing you should probably avoid an overly "flowery" style. Of all the ways to write the sentence in question, in my opinion the 

I have seen that movie too.

version is the most casual and closest to what one would say in most day to day situations. You should use the other forms if the situations calls for it. A fine nuance may be important when you write a novel, for example.

Marcin Zalewski
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  • I think that the casual one requires a comma before "too" in order to convey the same meaning as the rest. – V13 Jun 25 '20 at 12:04