Mechanical uses of the comma Numbers Jr. Degrees and certifications Direct address Dates Geographic references The listing comma Setting off nonrestrictive or nonessential information Commas based on sentence structure Compound sentences Simple sentences Complex sentences Compound-complex sentences When comma rules conflict.
Conventional or mechanical uses of the comma There are several uses of the comma that can best be described as conventional or mechanical. Examples David White Jr.
He was formerly a senior vice president at Apple Inc. Jane Jones, Esq. Tom Roberts Jr. Examples We could not have done it without you, Lisa. Thank you, Governor, for your support. Lori, please stop by my office before you leave for the day. Examples The store closed its doors for good on Wednesday, October 15, Her arrival on Monday, April 11, , was considered a turning point for the company.
Uncertain The July 10, , meeting was canceled due to a hurricane watch. Revised The meeting scheduled for July 10, , was canceled due to a hurricane watch. Correct The store closed its doors for good in October Incorrect The store closed its doors for good in October , Example Her arrival on 11 April was considered a turning point for the company. Examples The mayor of New York was the first guest to arrive; the mayor of Athens, Georgia, was the last to arrive.
Examples For your entree, you may choose vegetarian pasta, beef, chicken, or salmon. I am taking art history, Russian literature, microeconomics, and macroeconomics next semester. Examples The wine offered a fragrant, captivating bouquet. It was a long, noisy, nauseating flight. Example It was a long, noisy, and nauseating flight.
Incorrect He held a bright , red balloon. Correct This is a very, very violent movie. Incorrect This is a very very violent movie. Example I will give the document to my brother, Tom. Example I will give the document to my brother Tom. Explanation: Hawthorne wrote more than one novel. Explanation: Hawthorne had only one first novel.
Examples Mary Smith, a staff writer at the Times , recently wrote a book on that subject. Examples Your work has been, frankly, awful. The hotel, once we finally found it, was very nice. Examples Yes, we expect to attend the Christmas party.
Honestly, why would you ever think that? In my opinion, the movie was more compelling than the book. Examples I found the painting rather dull, to be honest. Leave some food for me, please. We will not be attending the reception, however. Examples We visited Berlin too. We took the train instead. Examples She purchased the car, but she declined the extended warranty.
Example Elizabeth flew to the conference and Nancy drove. Examples She purchased the car but not the extended warranty. Are you traveling in first class or in business class? Because of the thunderstorm, our flight has been delayed.
Example If you eat a balanced diet and exercise for a few hours each day, you will feel healthier. Our flight has been delayed because of the thunderstorm. Examples The guests, who were all close friends of the president, refused to speak about the events that evening.
Subscriber Account active since. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written communication. We've compiled a list of all the times when you'll need the mighty comma — and we wrote sentences about ducks to show you their proper use:. Rebecca Aydin and Christina Sterbenz contributed to a previous version of this post. An independent clause is a unit of grammatical organization that includes both a subject and verb and can stand on its own as a sentence.
In the previous example, "I went running" and "I saw a duck" are both independent clauses, and "and" is the coordinating conjunction that connects them. Consequently, we insert a comma. If we were to eliminate the second "I" from that example, the second clause would lack a subject, making it not a clause at all. In that case, it would no longer need a comma: "I went running and saw a duck. A dependent clause is a grammatical unit that contains both subject and verb but cannot stand on its own, like "When I went running Commas always follow these clauses at the start of a sentence.
If a dependent clause ends the sentence, however, it no longer requires a comma. Only use a comma to separate a dependent clause at the end of a sentence for added emphasis, usually when negation occurs. Appositives act as synonyms for a juxtaposed word or phrase. In the above example — "While running, I saw a mallard, a kind of duck" — "A kind of duck" is the appositive, which gives more information about "a mallard. If the appositive occurs in the middle of the sentence, both sides of the phrase need a comma.
As in: "A mallard, a kind of duck, attacked me. Don't let the length of an appositive scare you. As long as the phrase somehow gives more information about its predecessor, you usually need a comma. There's one exception to this rule. Don't offset a phrase that gives necessary information to the sentence. Usually, commas surround a non-essential clause or phrase. For example, "The duck that attacked me scared my friend" doesn't require any commas.
Even though the phrase "that attacked me" describes "the duck," it provides essential information to the sentence.
Otherwise, no one would know why the duck scared your friend. Clauses that begin with "that" are usually essential to the sentence and do not require commas. That last comma, known as the serial comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma, causes serious controversy. Although many consider it unnecessary, others including Business Insider insist on its use to reduce ambiguity. There's an Internet meme that demonstrates its necessity perfectly.
The version without the Oxford comma, however, takes on an entirely different meaning, potentially suggesting that only one invitation was sent — to two strippers named JFK and Stalin. Read more: 12 everyday phrases that you're probably saying incorrectly. Many adverbs end in "ly" and answer the question "how? How did something happen? Adverbs that don't end in "ly," such as "when" or "while," usually introduce a dependent clause, which rule number two in this post already covered.
For comparison, there is no second subject after and and but in examples 13 - If the independent clauses are not joined by a conjunction, i. Prepositional phrases beginning with a preposition, e. When the prepositional introductory phrase is short less than word , the comma can be omitted, but it is not wrong to use it.
Rule 5: Use a comma after a [dependent clause] preceding an [independent clause]. The dependent clause can provide the time, the condition, the reason, etc. Commonly, dependent clauses begin with if, whether, because, although, since, when, while, unless, even though, whenever, etc.
Note that a dependent clause should be separated from an independent clause by a comma only when the dependent clause precedes the independent one. If the dependent clause follows the independent one, no comma is places before if, whether, because, although, since, when, while, unless, etc.
Rule 6: Use commas before and after parts of the sentence that are not essential to its meaning. Such non-essential parts can be words, phrases and entire clauses. An easy way to test whether a word, a phrase, or a clause is non-essential is to simply leave it out and see whether the message changes dramatically. The part who live in glass houses is essential to the meaning since the only the people to whom this applies should not throw stones. The sentence in 31 implies that people generally live in glass houses.
Your email address will not be published. English Language Help Desk. Skip to content. Rules for comma usage By Marina Pantcheva The comma is perhaps the most puzzling mark of punctuation.
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