The House of Commas
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
(Franklin Roosevelt)
“If at first you don’t succeed, failure may be your style.”
(Quentin Crisp)
THE LONDON literary scene was left in turmoil last night as an unknown thief made off with over ten thousand commas and a year’s supply of full stops as a result the war office has brought into force a nineteen thirty four piece of legislation that states all punctuation must now be written in longhand comma you know comma a bit like they did on telegrams stop fortunately comma as you may or may not have gathered comma new paragraphs are still in ready supply stop at the time of crisis comma it is only natural for people to start using replacement punctuation! however – professors at Huddersfield University are warning against it?! as it’s tiring to read;- and often grammatically inappropriate.
Commas, Six Rules (but… there are more!)
1. Put a comma before and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet when they connect two complete sentences.
I hate Mondays, but I love Fridays.
I hate Mondays but love Fridays.
2. Put a comma between each item in a series.
He likes cake, ice cream, and turnips.
He ate dinner, felt sick, and looked for the Pepto-Bismol.
Some words “go together” and don’t need commas: dear little old lady; dilapidated old building.
Dates and addresses in sentences are like lists:
Olive lives at 213 Pimento Drive, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
She was born January 23, 1923.
3. Put a comma after an introductory expression that does not flow smoothly into the sentence–a word, group of words, or dependent clause.
No, I don’t want any.
Rushing to the door, she dropped the pizza.
When she picked it up, it had unspeakable grime on it.
4. Put commas around the name of a person spoken to.
What I mean, Reginald, is that you’re in the dog house.
5. Put commas around an expression that interrupts the flow of a sentence (like however, finally, therefore, on the other hand, of course, by the way, I think, etc. Remember that words like however and therefore, when they separate two complete sentences, need; and,).
We got our binoculars, however, and went outside.
We got our binoculars; however, we couldn’t see the comet.
She thought, of course, that Bruce Willis was great.
6. Put commas around nonessential material–material that the sentence could survive without.
Gladys, who loves to ice skate, broke her toe.
Working, a book by Studs Terkel, is like a collage.
The house, which we painted last week, is for sale.
(We can tell which house it is without knowing it’s the newly painted one.)
The house that we painted last week is for sale. (We won’t know which house it is unless we know it’s the newly painted one.)
A comma can be used to separate a list, as in: you might find some useful links HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE
and HERE.
Category: 2) Useful n Interesting
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As well as our events, we like to share interesting, and more often than not, FREE tools, resources and ideas, some old, some new, and we hope you might find something useful. We'd love your thoughts. Tim & Sarah
Quick! Get the smelling salts! All these rules have made me quite commatose.
You do me a great fligminkle by posting my comment on your blog.