diff --git a/syntax_dag.py b/syntax_dag.py
index 6586703..927b92a 100644
--- a/syntax_dag.py
+++ b/syntax_dag.py
@@ -118,7 +118,8 @@ class Encoder:
             or any(token.dep_ in {"neg", "aux", "conj"} for token in sentence)
             or not any(child.dep_ == "nsubj" for child in sentence.root.children)
             or not any(child.dep_ == "nsubj" for child in verb.children)
-            or {token.i for token in verb.subtree} != set(range(marker.i, end))
+            or {token.i for token in verb.subtree if not token.is_punct}
+            != set(range(marker.i, end))
         ):
             return None
         return marker, end
diff --git a/test_syntax_dag.py b/test_syntax_dag.py
index 499a8d5..38089c1 100644
--- a/test_syntax_dag.py
+++ b/test_syntax_dag.py
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ class SyntaxDAGTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_causal_commit(self):
         text = "The road flooded because it rained.  They waited."
         graph = self.encoder.encode(text)
+        self.assertEqual(len(graph.proposals), 1, [
+            (token.text, token.head.text, token.dep_, token.pos_, token.tag_)
+            for token in self.encoder.nlp(text)
+        ])
         proposal, = graph.proposals
         self.assertTrue(any(
             len({edge.source for edge in graph.edges if edge.target == node}) > 1