There are two main ways for using commas:1. Commas separate the things in a list.They are real ones.E.g. "I need some pencils, an exercise book and a calculator before I start my homework"."I must buy a dozen eggs, coffee, sugar and tea."Sometimes these items are things you do, or places you go.E.g. "Yesterday I went to the University, played tennis, went to the cinema and then went to bed.""I'm going to spend my vacation swimming in the sea, walking on the beach, sleeping in the sun and reading my favourite books."Note:Don't confuse commas with a full-stop.If the words could stand alone as a sentence then you need to put a full-stop or a joining word ('and', 'but' etc) and not a comma.E.g."Yesterday I went to college, I walked the dog, I went shopping and I watered the flowers" - "Yesterday I went to college. Then I walked my dog. At 3 o'clock I went shopping. After shopping I watered the flowers.This doesn't work as these could all stand alone as proper short sentences. If you want to write them as a list (for example, to show that you had a lot to do) take out the "I":"Yesterday I went to college, walked the dog, went shopping and watered the flowers."2. Commas mark out the less important part of a sentence.This is a useful way to make your sentences more interesting by adding extra information.E.g. "The car, which was parked next to the shop, had a big dog in the back seat."This sentence is about the car and the dog, it's not about where the car was parked.E.g."Ben, Ann's brother, was given a notebook as a birthday present"This sentence is about Ben getting a notebook. We don't need "Ann's brother" for the sentence to make sense, it's extra information.E.g."Ann, the youngest in the family, is going to get married."This sentence is about Ann getting married, it's not about her position in the family.You can check your writing:You need to see if the sentence makes sense without the words between the commas.The first sentence -"The car, which was parked next to the shop, had a big dog in the back seat."would become"The car ________ had a big dog in the back seat."This sentence makes sense so the commas are in the right places.
Hello, Hardi!
Thank you very much for your comment! I'm glad too, that you have seen the cartoon "In the Country of Unlearned Lessons"! In my view, soviet cartoons are very good films!
Hardi, you would be surprised, if you learned, that I didn't like punctuation, when I was at school, though I always put commas correctly. But I didn't learn the rules, concerning it! :-))) In my view, it would be boring! I think, only really mature person is able to love the rules of punctuation!
Hardi,
Very often we just need our logical mind and possibly intuition when choosing a punctuation mark. I suppose, you prefer this way. For those who constantly deal with different texts, I think, it's not a too difficult task.
Rosenmaiden, I know that tale too. I was actually expecting natasha to come out with that story after reading my post. lol
I'm glad you told it.
Yeah the comma, is important, but all that punctuation is really too difficult to remember and think about. I don't like it.
I rather use my brain's whole resource to think what to write not how to write. I write a lot of nonsense and stupids things anyway. What would happen when I totally lose control over my output? LOL
Really, I do use commas when I write, but I also know that I use them probably often, or mostly wrongly. It's too much hassle to learn how to use them correctly. I was lazy or too occupied with more important, or interesting things, to learn them in school. My teachers of Estonian were all too ugly to be interested what they teach. My Russian language teacher was actually a man.. And teacher of Germans... well Germans was too difficult anyways. LOL
Hello, dear Natasha!
Thank you for your gorgeous blog! It's great idea - to tell all of us about commas! In Russian literature for children there is a fairy tale "In the Country of Unlearned Lessons" by Liya Geraskina. The main character - a school student - found himself in the magic country and he was made to do the task: to put a comma in the phrase "казнить нельзя помиловать" ( in Russian) - translate: "you must be executed" "it is impossible" "you must be pardoned".
If the student put comma like this: "казнить, нельзя помиловать" - he would be killed.
If he put comma like this: "казнить нельзя, помиловать" - he would be pardoned!
So Russian students know: the life of a person depends on commas! :-)))
As a teacher of Russian language, I think - using commas and other punctuation marks is the sign of scholarship, level of culture and respect to the readers.
Dear Hardi,
It's a part of the rule, and all this rule is simple, if I compare with Russian language! Russian - a great deal of different cases of punctuation marks using! ^__^
So I like it in English - I mean rather few grammar rules.
I think it's not worth continuing to post, because nobody wants to use punctuation marks at all:-))) They are being killed by users and other citizens, I can see it. People even don't like capital letters! I used to think only little kids do this way.
Thanks for your interest.
Comments
Thank you very much for your comment! I'm glad too, that you have seen the cartoon "In the Country of Unlearned Lessons"! In my view, soviet cartoons are very good films!
Hardi, you would be surprised, if you learned, that I didn't like punctuation, when I was at school, though I always put commas correctly. But I didn't learn the rules, concerning it! :-))) In my view, it would be boring! I think, only really mature person is able to love the rules of punctuation!
Very often we just need our logical mind and possibly intuition when choosing a punctuation mark. I suppose, you prefer this way. For those who constantly deal with different texts, I think, it's not a too difficult task.
I'm glad you told it.
Yeah the comma, is important, but all that punctuation is really too difficult to remember and think about. I don't like it.
I rather use my brain's whole resource to think what to write not how to write. I write a lot of nonsense and stupids things anyway. What would happen when I totally lose control over my output? LOL
Really, I do use commas when I write, but I also know that I use them probably often, or mostly wrongly. It's too much hassle to learn how to use them correctly. I was lazy or too occupied with more important, or interesting things, to learn them in school. My teachers of Estonian were all too ugly to be interested what they teach. My Russian language teacher was actually a man.. And teacher of Germans... well Germans was too difficult anyways. LOL
Thank you for your gorgeous blog! It's great idea - to tell all of us about commas! In Russian literature for children there is a fairy tale "In the Country of Unlearned Lessons" by Liya Geraskina. The main character - a school student - found himself in the magic country and he was made to do the task: to put a comma in the phrase "казнить нельзя помиловать" ( in Russian) - translate: "you must be executed" "it is impossible" "you must be pardoned".
If the student put comma like this: "казнить, нельзя помиловать" - he would be killed.
If he put comma like this: "казнить нельзя, помиловать" - he would be pardoned!
So Russian students know: the life of a person depends on commas! :-)))
As a teacher of Russian language, I think - using commas and other punctuation marks is the sign of scholarship, level of culture and respect to the readers.
It's a part of the rule, and all this rule is simple, if I compare with Russian language! Russian - a great deal of different cases of punctuation marks using! ^__^
So I like it in English - I mean rather few grammar rules.
I think it's not worth continuing to post, because nobody wants to use punctuation marks at all:-))) They are being killed by users and other citizens, I can see it. People even don't like capital letters! I used to think only little kids do this way.
Thanks for your interest.