Re: please correct...

We are asked:
(1)Should 'all' be followed by 'is' or 'all'?

That should be "'is' or 'are'", of course.

***The most important thing in life is health. All else are
relatively unimportant.

(2)Is the comma used appropriately?

***The most important thing in life is health, all else is relatively
unimportant.

(3)Should 'and' be used to connect two sentences?

***The most important thing in life is health, and all else are
relatively unimportant.

Thanks

John Kane writes:
Number 2 looks fine to me. "Are" is incorrect. Number 3 would be
acceptable if you used 'is' but it sounds clumsy.

Athel Cornish-Bowden writes:
I agree up to a point, but 2 needs a semicolon rather than a comma,

I'll split the difference on this. I'd always write 2 myself with
a semicolon (or a new sentence), but I think there are many people
who would accept it with a comma in informal usage.

and 3 needs "is" rather than "are".

Yes, that's what John said. The use of "and" is a stylistic choice,
and while John thinks the "and" version is clumsy, I think it's fine.

Although "all" can take a plural verb I don't think it can if
its antecedent is clearly singular.

I agree, but I think Athel's sentence requires a comma after "verb".

Switching to pedantic mood, each closing parenthesis mark should be
followed by a space, and triple asterisks are not a recognized way of
introducing an example. The subject line tells us nothing about what
the subject is.

Indeed.
--
Mark Brader | "I always pass on good advice. It's the only thing
Toronto | to do with it. It is never any use to oneself."
msb@xxxxxxx | -- Lord Goring (Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband)

My text in this article is in the public domain.
.

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