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I’ve the following sentence:

Das aus Europa stammende, mit dem Mais verwandte, Bambusgras wird in Deutschland zunehmend als Alternative für xyz angebaut.

The second comma feels wrong. But it's from my point of view an Einschub. I can replace the first comma with an und and it still makes sense. But at the same time, removing the whole Einschub is also possible.

Is the comma correct? Optional? Wrong? And why?

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  • FYI, an Einschub goes possibly like so: Das aus Europa stammende Bambusgras (mit dem Mais verwandt) wird .... I don't recommend it, but use it often enough. The difference is non-negligable because, while the position in the sentence changes, the inflection does change. Theoretically I see nothing that requires this position, and an excrescent -e could be attributed to euphonie, so effectively cannot see a strict difference. Nicht zu verwechseln mit Meisner by the way
    – vectory
    Mar 1, 2022 at 20:14
  • @vectory An Einschub could also be "Das aus Europa stammende (und mit dem Mais verwandte) Bambusgras wird …"
    – Bergi
    Mar 1, 2022 at 20:18
  • @Bergi nein, das kann es nicht sein, das hieße nicht Einschub. Bitte lese die topf gewählte antwort. Die Satzzeichen (parens) sind dahingehend unerheblich.
    – vectory
    Mar 3, 2022 at 4:48

2 Answers 2

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The comma in question "looks weird" because it is wrong.

What you observe is not an Einschub (Apposition), but rather an Aufzählung (of attributes of the plant). §71 of the Rechtschreibregeln says the following

Gleichrangige (nebengeordnete) Teilsätze, Wortgruppen oder Wörter grenzt man mit Komma voneinander ab. (Emphasis mine)

and gives the analogous example

Völlig erschöpft, hungrig und frierend, vom Regen durchnässt kamen sie nach Hause.

There needs to be a comma between the elements, but none at the end (the end of the list is just the border betwen the adjective(s) that describe the substantive and the substantive like in

Affen mögen am liebsten reife, gelbe Bananen.

An apposition would look like

Das Bambusgras wird, mit dem Mais verwandt und aus Amerika stammend, in Deutschland zunehmend als Alternative für xyz angebaut.

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  • Wikipedia treats an apposition as distinct from a parenthesis (Einschub). The latter I would build with brackets or dashes, not with commas (especially if uncertain whether a comma is correct or not).
    – Bergi
    Feb 26, 2022 at 18:16
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You can imagine such an 'Einschub' as additional information and if you would remove the second comma, the sentence would be wrong.

Das aus Europa stammende Bambusgras wird in Deutschland zunehmend als Alternative für xyz angebaut.

This is the main clause.

Einschub is just a subordinate clause, which is pushed into a main clause. If you don't like to use it you can also say the following:

Das Bambusgras stammt aus Europa, ist mit dem Mais verwandt und wird in Deutschland zunehmend als Alternative für xyz angebaut.

That's just the same sentence with three main clauses next to each other.

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  • 1
    the reformulation makes it look like an enumeration, as implicated in the former answer, don't you think?
    – vectory
    Mar 1, 2022 at 20:05
  • @vectory Yeah, that's true. It's called Satzreihe in German
    – Enrico Pucci
    Mar 2, 2022 at 6:53

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