1.3 Optionalcommas
As a rule, you should use a commaonly if itw ill make
the sentence easier to read, or make the meaningmore
clear by preventingan ambiguity. For example,whyis
thecommauseful in thefollowingsentence?
Here 's(lboxtoca rr ythecat,alllfthed ogcalls it on my lap.A Withconjunctions
Commasareoften unnecessary withco-ordinat ing
conjunctions.As ageneralrule, whensentences are
joined together withand,ororbut ,commas are not
neededp rovidedthat both verbs havethe same subject.
SheMIll;thebankrobbcllJ(Jill!phonedforthe police.
11l Cmotheroft hebride loses(Jd aughterhiltgains(JSOIl.
When the verbshave a differentsubject.a commais
more usual.
Shesawth ebankrobbenJ. hiltth erobbersd idnotseeher.
In the followingsentences, add any commas that may be
useful.
1 Australianfootbailerscan kick the ball or throwit.2 The burglarsate all our food and thebah~'ne verwoke
up.
3 She thoughtM issVerne r was going to hefuriou sand
shewaite dall morning tohesum m onedto the .5th floor
but the call never came.
4 Shesquashedagrapefl1litin Cagney'sface andwalked
outofhis life.
B Subordinat eclauses
Commasare generallyused when asubordinate clause
beginsthesentence. Forexample,AlthoughIhadnever
seen onebeforeis a subordinateclause.The sentence is
notfinished, but must continuewitha main clause.
Altho/ighIl/tId 1 let:ersee"OtiCbefore, I k"cwheteasa
zombie.
When the subordinateclause follows the main clause,
commas are optional. As a rule, only use acomma when
you needonetomake the meaning of the sentence
clear.
I k"cu:heIcas(J:::.omb ie(, )a /though IfwdlIer;er see"OtI C
before.
I getaheatlnclu:iclienecerI thi nkofYOIl.
CommasInsert commas as appropriatein the following sentences.
1 Beforehe tookoffLindhergmadehimselfso me
sandwiches.
2 ~llIchasI admire his paintings I wouldn't trusthimwith
my daughters.
:3 I hought this hicycle soI couldgo to thebeadIevery
morning.
4 Foo thalle rs dre amofscoring goals andphilosophy
studen ts dre amoffindingthe meaningoflife.1.4 Lists and sequences
Commasareused to separateitems in alist.
At the schoo l therearc[actliticsjorjootball,tennis,
r;olley/wl!andcroquet,
Charles "er;erd rinkshee l':he p ref ersgi lla mitonic,,dUs ky
ami sod a,b randyami ginge r,and,cine.
The usual practice isnotto put acomma betweenthe
last two itemsof a list: they arejoinedinstead byand.
Butsometimes, when each itemon the list is more than
one or twowords long, a commacan make the
sentenceeasier to read andavoid amb iguity.
In the first sentence above, thereis no need fora
commaaftervolleyball;in the secondsentencethe
commaaftergingeris stronglyrecommended ,in order t o
avoid an unpleasantcocktail.
Commas are used to separate a listotnouns (as above)
but alsoadjectives,adverbs, etc.
The monthofMar ch teascold ,teet ,rciudyandth o roughly
Eugl;sh.
She got toherfeetslOlcly, relllcffllltlyamipaillflllly.
Teelooked her e , t here a m!ecennchere.Theyare alsoused to separateitemsin a sequence or
'list' of c lauses(but notethe conjunction between the
finaltwoitemsin the following examples).
Frank packed his bags ,p utth emill hiscar, closedh is[runt
door,threica petrolbombthrou ghth escindou:th e ndroc e
totheairport.
They co me home late, th eynecerclean thestairs,I'moften
u.okenupill the nightbytheirlloisyparties ,ClI1lI 11 :o rst of
all theydOll't go to church.
See alsopage 34for theuse of semicolonsin lists.Writingsub-skills • 33