Language: text structure and punctuation
Commas in a list
Use commas to separate the things in a list, and to mark off the person you are speaking to.
When you list three or more things in one sentence, the reader needs help seeing where each one ends. That is the comma's oldest job: it keeps the things in a list apart.
The rule
Put a comma between the things in a list, and the word and before the last one. We bought pens, pencils and paper.
Two things need no comma
A list of only two is joined by and on its own. We bought pens and paper. Adding a comma there would break the sentence up for no reason.
The comma before and
Some writers also put a comma in front of the last and: pens, pencils, and paper. Both ways are accepted by careful writers, so nothing here will ever ask you to choose between them.
The comma's other job
It also marks off the person you are speaking to. Come here, Ravi. Ravi, come here. The comma keeps the name apart from the instruction.
Worked example
Punctuate this: "On the shelf there were a lamp a clock a vase and a photograph."
Find the things being listed: a lamp, a clock, a vase, a photograph. That is four things.
Counting them first tells you how many gaps there are to fill.
Try it together
Let us punctuate one list together.
The sentence is: "The farmer keeps goats hens ducks and a cow." Each answer is one word — the word the comma goes straight after.
1.Which word does the first comma go after? Write one word.
Have a go
Which sentence has its commas in the right places?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.