commas
Pauses in writing
Commas are punctuation marks that separate elements within a sentence.
They set off clauses, items in a list, and parenthetical phrases: apples, oranges, and bananas.
The Oxford comma—the one before "and" in a series—sparks passionate debate among writers and editors.
Comma placement affects meaning: Let's eat, Grandma differs sharply from Let's eat Grandma.
clause
Provision in agreement
serial · oxford · semicolon · colon · dash · apostrophe · parentheses · brackets · quotation · ellipsis
list
Sequence of recorded items
- sequenceOrdered succession of elements
- itemsIndividual units or objects
- seriesOrdered set of related items
separation · elements · array · collection · catalogue · inventory · checklist · roster · lineup · tally
- English grammarnouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns
- writing rulespunctuation, capitalization, spelling, apostrophes, periods
- written symbolsletters, alphabets, punctuation, periods, question marks
- language usageusage, spelling, punctuation, grammar, diction
- Style GuideAP style, MLA style, house style, editorial guidelines, formatting
- code styleindentation, naming conventions, formatting, conventions, consistency
punctuation function
commasperiods
Spans of time
full stops · exclamation points · question marks · paragraph breaks · semicolons
- comma spliceMisjoined clauses with punctuation
- inverted commasPunctuation enclosing quotations
- Oxford commaFinal list separator
- comma placementWhere to put pauses
- misplaced commaIncorrectly positioned pause mark
- comma usageGuidelines for pause marks