How To Use Commas When Listing
If you have a series of three or more items use commas to separate each item.
How to use commas when listing. I need to go to the supermarket to buy eggs milk bread sugar and. When you read the list aloud the commas emerge as breaths. Charlie has to buy flashlight batteries breath butter cookies breath ice cream breath and cake. First it is used in a list when three or more words phrases or even complete sentences are joined by the word and or or. Use commas to separate things in a list or series.
They can also be used when listing complex ideas or phrases that use commas within them. This page explains when to use commas in lists has lots of examples and includes an interactive exercise. However the final comma the one that comes before the and is optional. Commas can be a particularly tricky punctuation mark. The comma in front of the word and is optional.
As mentioned above when you are listing three or more items commas should separate each element of the list. The three musketeers were athos porthos and aramis. The listing comma is used as a kind of substitute for the word and or sometimes for or it occurs in two slightly different circumstances. A semicolon is used to separate two ideas two independent clauses that are closely related. Use commas to separate words and word groups in a simple series of three or more items.
At the store i will buy apples oranges pears and bananas. With two list items don t use a comma. With three list items use a comma between the list items and before the and or whatever conjunction if it s your local convention. Commas are used to separate list items. The commas between these items are signals.
For example here is a list separated by commas. You need commas between each item on the list with one important exception. When writing a list you should put a comma between each item except for the last item where you use and. While there s some degree of flexibility in how commas are used it s important to have a clear grasp of the rules. There are some cases where you know you should use a comma such as when separating items in a list but there are other times when you might be unsure whether or not a comma is needed.