Posts Tagged ‘punctuation’

There are many different rules for comma usage, and unlike some other sorts of punctuation (e.g. the question mark, the period), the rules can be rather fluid. Here is a short-ish breakdown of how to use commas, and when to use commas:

• Use commas to separate items written in a series.

Example: The dog, the cat, and the goldfish agree that it is going to rain.

(There is current debate about the comma after “cat” in the above sentence. This is the serial or Oxford comma, and is being eradicated from modern usage.)

• Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives (descriptive words) before a noun if the word order of the two could be reversed and the comma takes the place of “and.”

Example: The slumbering, snoring dog awoke with a start.

• Use a comma after a nonessential clause (which begins with who, whom, which or that and includes a verb).

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