|
Commas are used in pairs around text that adds extra information and that can be omitted without affecting the structure of the sentence: He was staying with his sister, a piano teacher, in Paris.The plant, which thrives in acid soils, is grown for its scented foliage. A comma may also follow a subordinate clause placed at the beginning of a sentence: If I miss the train, I will be late for the meeting.Born in 1950, he spent his early childhood in Europe. When commas are used to separate items in lists, the final comma (before and, or, or etc.) is optional: We invited Sarah, Jack, Kate, and Tom.You can have coffee, tea, cold milk or hot chocolate.They sell books, paper, envelopes, stamps, etc. Similarly, a series of adjectives used before a noun may or may not be separated by commas: It was a long, slow, difficult process.She was wearing a long blue knitted scarf. Commas may also be inserted at appropriate points to break up a lengthy complicated sentence, but it is often better and clearer to split the sentence up into smaller units. A comma should not, however, be used to separate a long subject from a verb: The girl I used to know many years ago at school was now unrecognizable (no comma between school and was). Never use a comma between sentences; this fault is known as a "comma splice."
|
