Granddad looked at me over the top of his glasses and said, "I've seen it all and done it all. 9 ways to become a better speller, according to an expert. However, the final comma—the one that comes before the and —is optional. (You could also use a colon here.) Didi may want to spend her roulette winnings on that Ferrari she always wanted. Similarly, you can swap their order. Case 2 Two adjectives are coordinate if you can answer yes to both of these questions: 1. An independent clause is a clause which could stand alone as its own sentence, because it has its own subject and verb. In my first couple editing jobs, I was exposed a lot to the idea that news and feature articles should 1. use everyday, conversational language and 2. make sense. It’s a style choice. Usually, commas surround a non-essential clause or phrase. When the salutation in your email starts with Hello or Hi, you should put a comma before the name of the person you’re addressing. Consequently, we insert a comma. 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. Commas don’t just signify pauses in a sentence – precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. The Oxford comma reduces ambiguity in lists. And, it is often used to create division or to improve the clarity of a … but it really depends on your usage of the word "Say". For example,“The duck that attacked me scared my friend” doesn’t require any commas. Sorry. Often, a coordinating conjunction will connect two independent clauses – like the word “but.”. Want to learn more about commas? How to Wish Someone Well in 2021. The answer depends on how you are using or. Or was it? To me, that style looks naked, but perhaps it’s freeing? The two independent clauses “I went running” and “I saw a duck” could instead be separated by a period. This is because the sentence is talking about a particular person John. The colons, commas and other punctuation marks are instead used to great visual effect, seeming more like embellishments than grammatical requisites. Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. When my adviser asked to speak with me in her office in March, I figured she wanted to discuss plans for a possible lab shutdown. You should only put a comma before “but” when connecting two independent clauses. Although many consider it unnecessary, others (including Business Insider) insist on its use to reduce ambiguity. This hugely depends on context. What’s more, it has a much cleaner typographical appearance. Writing, grammar, and communication tips for your inbox. Wait—not what you wanted to hear? The word comma comes from the Greek κόμμα (kómma), which originally meant a … Doing these 24 uncomfortable things will pay off forever, Yes, Apple just killed iTunes — here's what that means for your library of music, movies, and TV shows. Santa’s sleigh … For example, both of these examples can be considered correct: We can invest our savings in stocks, bonds, or real estate. in lists. When just two short grammatical elements are coordinated with or, do not separate them with a comma. This creates the grammatical equivalent of someone pausing while speaking – the commas make you stop at each clause, but let you know that the sentence is still flowing. Friday, March 15, was the day I say the duck. Open punctuation is an option in the U.S. too, but using a colon or comma is standard and much more common. I think there's a trend these todays toward a lighter use of commas. Didi may want to spend her roulette winnings on that Ferrari she always wanted, or a luxury vacation. In this case, you still need the comma if the negation occurs at the end of the sentence: Also use commas when any distinct shift occurs in the sentence or thought process: “The cloud looked like an animal, perhaps a baby seal.”, Read more: Although the Oxford University Press uses it (hence the name), American English writers use it more often than British English writers. Okay, let me try to break it down. That said, advocates of the Oxford comma do have a strong argument when it comes to the clarity. “Stop clubbing baby seals” reads like an order to desist harming infant mammals of the seal variety. Rule 5b. There’s an Internet meme that demonstrates its necessity perfectly. Introductory phrases can also be spotted a mile away if they contain gerunds. Margie Wakeman Wells. “A Rule without Exception”: Chicago, 1906. Don’t let the length of an appositive scare you. In the above sentence, a comma tells you that Scrooge and the extended McDuck clan are to jump in a pot of money. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. Most of us know that we need to put commas between the elements in a list. Technically, those e-mail messages you write should begin Hi, John —with a comma after Hi. I know I have a very fuzzy way of determining whether a comma is actually needed and prefer to use them as little as possible.. Only coordinate adjectives require a comma between them. This is the much-debated Oxford comma (or serial comma). Correct: "Anyway," she said, "I have to go." …Q Were you the only one there? This is why there should be a comma before or. When a word or phrase forms an introduction … 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. People often get muddled about whether to place a comma before conjunctions like and, so, because, and or. A comma is not used to set off a "he said/she said" clause if the part of the quotation preceding the clause ends with a question mark or exclamation point. Should you use a comma before or? The question Do you agree with the saying? The question of whether to put a comma before quotes when quoting from a document came up on Facebook. Each of the two clauses here can stand independently. In a series (or list) of three or more items, you can use a comma before or, but this is a preference, not a rule. Contrary to popular belief, commas don’t just signify pauses in a sentence. (Note the pattern when the clause is in the middle.) You don’t need to add a comma when the sentence mentions only the month and year: Read more: When the words after yes and no “echo” the words of the question, use a comma. Two clauses that typically need a comma between them are an independent clause (a clause that could be its own stand-alone sentence) and a dependent clause, which cannot stand alone. We took a 4-hour flight on the new Delta Airbus jet that Boeing tried to keep out of the US. Phrases like “on the other hand” and “furthermore” also fall into this category. But – and it’s a big but – your middle school teacher may have told you to always throw a comma before “but.” Don’t do that! 12 everyday phrases that you’re probably saying incorrectly, Another example: “Finally, I went running.”. An independent clause is a unit of grammatical organisation that includes both a subject and verb and can stand on its own as a sentence. No, you don't need a comma after Say. Even if you add a weekday, keep the comma after “2013”: Friday, March 15, 2013, was the day I saw the duck. Use commas to offset appositives from the rest of the 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. So, should you put a comma after introductory words such as now, today, etc.? That last comma before the “and” is called a serial comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma. If a dependent clause ends the sentence, however, it no longer requires a comma. No, I’m not open–not yet. ... Post Author. You see, Hi, John is different from Dear John because hi and dear are not the same kind of word. This often occurs with adjunct nouns, a phrase where a noun acts as an adjective describing another noun – like “chicken soup” or “dance club.”. Do you want people to pause slightly when reading the phrase? Use a Comma After an Introductory Word or Phrase. It is considered good style to place a comma before or when it begins an independent clause. It is also standard practice to put a comma after the name of the person you're addressing. The company should check whether the contractor has the required experience. We can invest our savings in stocks, bonds or real estate. The use of a comma has a lot to do with the clauses you’re combining. In a series (or list) of three or more items, you can use a … If you’re trying to indicate a natural pause or inject your dialogue with some dramatic effect, commas can be your friend. When each element separated by or is just one or two words, the reader will have little trouble mentally sorting things out with whichever style you choose. The rule for where the comma goes, however, depends on where attribution comes. I just don't remember any of it." The version with a comma, however, instructs them to stop attending hip dance clubs. 1. For example: 1. Whether or not you should use it is a stylistic choice. In a way, they allow you to say just a little bit more in one, complete sentence. Only use a comma to separate a dependent clause at the end of a sentence for added emphasis, usually when negation occurs. A comma splice incorrectly joins two independent clauses, like: That sentence contains a comma splice, and therefore it is incorrect. The sentence, “We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin,” means the speaker sent three separate invitations: one to some strippers, one to JFK, and one to Stalin. There’s one exception to this rule. Witness: “We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.”, Read more: Commas should be used to separate geographic elements, as in the examples below. Coordinate adjectives are two or more adjectives that describe the same noun equally. “A mallard, the kind of duck I saw when I went running, attacked me.”. Otherwise, no one would know why the duck scared your friend. As long as the phrase somehow gives more information about its predecessor, you usually need a comma. If someone is reading out the text/e-mail conversation (you say “blah,” she says “blah blah,” then you say “blah blah blah”), would there be commas before the quotes? Put whatever comes first in quotes, end that quote with a comma, and then end the attribution with a comma. When the first edition of Chicago’s competing guide went on sale to the public—in 1906, as Manual of Style—the quotation marks were double, and the commas and periods went inside. Would you like that martini shaken or stirred? 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 …”. For example, this usage of “but” does not take a comma: “To quack but to have no one hear is a sad thing for a duck.”. (Rule 4) You can only use a comma (i.e., not a colon) after a quotation. This comma is called the serial comma or the Oxford comma. 2. If the clause beginning with or were rewritten to eliminate the subject and verb, it would not be able to stand on its own, and there would be no comma. If you have an introductory word (or two) that is being used as an adverb (usually answers the question of when, where, why, or to what degree), then no comma. (You should use a comma here as neither the introduction nor the quotation is an independent clause.) You’re right: In open punctuation there is no punctuation after the greeting and the closing. If you learned in school that you should always put a comma before someone’s name, I’m very sorry to inform … Clauses that begin with “that” are usually essential to the sentence and do not require commas. Mary needs bread, milk, and butter at the grocery store. As we can see, commas always want to be the ones introducing the pre-amble to a sentence. 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. While I understand your concern, you're abjectly wrong and I'm no longer listening to you. If attribution comes before the quote, place the comma outside the quotations marks: If attribution comes after the quote, put the comma inside the quotation marks: Another example: “Cleveland, Ohio, is a great city.”. Hello, Nigel, Good morning, Kendra. Check out our guide to comma use. Appositives act as synonyms for a juxtaposed word or phrase. 9 words and phrases people think are wrong, but are actually correct. Even though the phrase “that attacked me” describes “the duck,” it provides essential information to the sentence. Does the sentence still make sense if you insert “and” between the words? Introductory phrases are a nice way to add depth and variety to your writing. In About-Face, UK Will Not Allow Huawei To Be Involved In Any Part Of... Universal Orlando Parks Will Reopen June 5 Despite Risk Of... Pro-Privacy Lawmakers Secure A Vote To Protect Browsing Data From... Jurassic World: Dominion Is Definitely Not The Planned End Of The... White Twitch Talk Show Host Finally Drops 'Rajj Patel' Moniker, Everything We Know About The PlayStation 5. “But wait,” the Business Insider reporter wrote, “there’s more ways to use commas.”. It can also divide clauses (“parts of a sentence”) or items in a list. Grant on March 10, 2016 2:13 pm. In English commas are used to mark places where the reader naturally pauses, or they are used to “section off” parts of sentences. You may want to use a comma in a series of three or more things. Commas always follow these clauses at the start of a sentence. Without the comma, it would seem that multiple Scrooges were raking in the coins. You should use a comma between two adjectives when they are coordinate adjectives. As you may recall from above, an independent clause has a subject and a verb and can stand on its own as a sentence. Didi may want to spend her roulette winnings on that Ferrari she always wanted or a luxury vacation. Consider the longer series of coordinating items in this sentence; within the series itself, there is a phrase with a necessary or. 5 Writing "Rules" That Are Really Guidelines, Tone vs. Read more: “Stop clubbing, baby seals.” (Or rather, to stay on theme:“Stop clubbing, baby ducks.”). This sort of mistake matters in English because it can be very confusing for the reader. Hi is an interjection just like wow and ugh, and dear is an adjective that modifies John. A 69-year old prisoner is trying to change that one livestream at a time. For example, “I lay under the powerful summer sun.” “Powerful” describes “summer sun” as a whole phrase. Examples. I actually didn't know that placement of commas or periods/dots between digits should be the same in UK English as it is in US English. Starting a sentence with “however,” however, is discouraged by many careful writers. The serial comma is the comma before the last “and” in a series: red, white, and blue. Prisoners are 5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than the overall population. A better method would be to use “however” within a sentence after the phrase you want to negate, as in the previous sentence. People have been asking a good question about commas with names and salutations, so here goes: Question: Do I have to use a comma with a person’s name when I say "Hi" or "Hello"? 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. Sleigh … the company should check whether the contractor has the required experience if it begins independent... ( or serial comma or the Oxford comma, Oxford comma, causes serious.! The us sentence ; within the series itself, there is a phrase that gives information. 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