Julie loves ice cream books and kittens. Julie loves ice cream, books, and kittens. Julie loves ice cream, books and kittens. The comma before the and in a list of three or more items is optional. See below under Serial Comma for more information. Your list might be made up of nouns, as in the example above, but it could also be made up of verbs, adjectives, or clauses.
Imagine, for a moment, that you have just finished doing three chores. The chores were:. I cleaned the house and garage, raked the lawn, and took out the garbage. I cleaned the house and garage, raked the lawn and took out the garbage.
As mentioned above, when you are listing three or more items, commas should separate each element of the list. However, the final comma—the one that comes before the and —is optional. This comma is called the serial comma or the Oxford comma.
Mary needs bread, milk, and butter at the grocery store. With serial comma Mary needs bread, milk and butter at the grocery store. Without serial comma. Whether or not you use the serial comma is a style choice. Many newspapers do not use it. Many trade books do use it. In your own writing, you can decide for yourself whether to use it or not—just be consistent.
Keep in mind, though, that occasionally the serial comma is necessary for clarity. I dedicate this award to my parents, Jane Austen and Albert Einstein. The sentence above will almost certainly cause readers to do a double take.
To put it another way, the writer seems to be saying that her parents are Jane Austen and Albert Einstein. I dedicate this award to my parents, Jane Austen, and Albert Einstein.
Mary said, she likes chocolate. Mary said she likes chocolate. Nonrestrictive clauses are usually introduced by which or who and should be set off by commas. My wife, whom I love dearly, is a brilliant physicist. A restrictive clause adds necessary information about something you have mentioned in a sentence. Restrictive clauses are often introduced by that or who and should never be set off by commas. The cafe, that Chester recommended, is a fantastic restaurant.
The cafe that Chester recommended is a fantastic restaurant. If you removed it, there would be no way to tell which restaurant you were talking about.
Typically, commas are unnecessary with correlative conjunctions. Either the blue shirt, or the red sweater will look good with your jeans. Either the blue shirt or the red sweater will look good with your jeans.
You can wear a pashmina not only for warmth, but also for fashion. You can wear a pashmina not only for warmth but also for fashion. Attributive tags can come before, after, or even in the middle of a quote. Use commas to separate attributive tags from quotations. My favourite sandwiches are chicken, bacon and ham and cheese. Adding an Oxford comma makes the meaning clear:. My favourite sandwiches are chicken, bacon, and ham and cheese. If the piece of direct speech comes after the information about who is speaking, you need to use a comma to introduce the direct speech.
The comma comes before the first quotation mark. Note that the final quotation mark follows the full stop at the end of the direct speech:. You also need to use a comma at the end of a piece of direct speech, if the speech comes before the information about who is speaking.
In this case, the comma goes inside the quotation mark:. There are two exceptions to this rule. If a piece of direct speech takes the form of a question or an exclamation, you should end it with a question mark or an exclamation mark, rather than a comma:. Direct speech is often broken up by the information about who is speaking. In these cases, you need a comma to end the first piece of speech inside the quotation mark and another comma before the second piece before the quotation mark :.
Rule 8. Use a comma to separate the day of the month from the year, and—what most people forget! Example: It was in the Sun's June 5, , edition. Our planning meetings will take place on November 13 and December Rule 9. Use a comma to separate a city from its state, and remember to put one after the state, also. Rule Traditionally, if a person's name is followed by Sr.
This comma is no longer considered mandatory. However, if a comma does precede Sr. Correct: Al Mooney Sr. Correct: Al Mooney, Sr.
Incorrect: Al Mooney, Sr. Similarly, use commas to enclose degrees or titles used with names. Rule 12a. Use commas to introduce or interrupt direct quotations of dialogue or text. Examples: He said, "I don't care. If a quotation is preceded by introductory words such as that , whether , if , a comma is normally not needed.
Example: Was it James Baldwin who wrote that "nothing can be changed until it is faced"? A comma is not necessary to introduce titles of articles, chapters, songs, etc.
Rule 12b. If the quotation comes before he said, she wrote, they reported, Dana insisted, or a similar attribution, end the quoted material with a comma, even if it is only one word. Examples: "I don't care," he said. Rule 12c. If a quotation functions as a subject or object in a sentence, it might not need a comma. Examples: Is "I don't care" all you can say to me? Saying "Stop the car" was a mistake.
Rule 12d. If a quoted question ends in midsentence, the question mark replaces a comma. Example: "Will you still be my friend? Use a comma to separate a statement from a question. Use a comma to separate contrasting parts of a sentence. Rule 15a. Use a comma before and after certain introductory words or terms, such as namely, that is, i. Example: You may be required to bring many items, e. Rule 15b. Commas should precede the term etc.
Example: Sleeping bags, pans, warm clothing, etc. Enable JavaScript Uh oh! Hide Notice. We had coffee, cheese and crackers, and grapes. There are several simple remedies: Correct: He walked all the way home.
Some writers omit the comma if the clauses are both quite short: Example: I paint and he writes. And I've already used three commas in this paragraph. What gives? I going to make the even bigger assumption that you are in fact using commas to elongate your sentences, to make them complicated, to have them drag out well past their usefulness, and that you want them to stop, but you aren't sure how to do it Many people feel that complex sentences somehow infuse their writing more edge or depth.
That long, lusterous sentences make your writing seem smarter. But commas are just a tool. They can only do what they are told, whether for the better or worse of a sentence. If you feel you have too many commas, you do. In places that are appropriate, make them separate sentences. The worse that can happen is that you cut it back too far, you can see that you have cut it back too far, and you put some of the commas back.
I don't think there's any simple metric. Like, no one can say you should have twenty-seven commas per page or anything like that. The first question would be, Do you have commas in inappropriate places? If you have sentences like, "Bob walked, to, the store, slowly" then yes, there are too many commas.
But a sentence that contains a list could legitimately have many commas. Like, "He found a bottle, three coins, two keys, a small metal box, a pack of matches, some scraps of paper, and a patridge in a pear tree. The real problem is not the number of commas per se, but whether they are being used properly.
If they are, then I wouldn't even think about it. If you think you have too many commas, and they are all used appropriately, it may be that your problem is that your sentences are too complex.
If you have too many clauses in each sentence that can indirectly result in too many commas. As Tylerhams said in a comment, perhaps if you gave a couple of sample sentences folks here could give a more specific reply.
There are some generally accepted style rules about commas in lists but in terms of overuse, I think it sensible to consider how commas can help you to write in a natural style that sounds more like the ebb and flow of speech.
I believe commas were first introduced to show where to take a breath and if you don't use any it sounds like you are just babbling on and on and at some point you might even start to sound like a legal document that has been drafted to have no ambiguity or even worse an 'empty vessel'. I don't think short sentences are always the best answer. Some do. In contrast, sensitive punctuation introduces a human feel to the prose - as if you are hearing a musical conversation, rather than just reporting the facts.
You cannot easily indicate pitch and tone, so you have to do the best you can with words and punctuation. In my opinion, the commonest problems are: lack of consistency, poor style, and little empathy for the reader.
I find it particularly frustrating to read anything by an author who doesn't quite know what a comma is supposed to be doing in the sentence. It interrupts my train of thought when I spot a superfluous or missing comma; semicolons are another matter entirely.
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