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hello everyone welcome to Sparkle English in this lesson I'm going to teach you about eight basic comma rules and these are English writing essentials it is very important to have proper punctuation and to use commas correctly when you're writing in English so let's get started I recommend you grab a pen and paper or something to take notes because we will be doing a little bit of practice as we go along for each rule so let's get started rule number one use commas to separate items in a series of three or more things remember that an item may refer to a noun verb or adjective phrase and note that the usage of a comma to separate the second to last item is optional we call this an Oxford comma I like to use it but it's not necessary so examples I bought cheese and bread as you can see these are only two different items so you don't need to put a comma but if you had three items I bought ham comma cheese comma and bread then you would put commas after him and after cheese again this one is optional because it's the second last item if you had another item in here I bought ham comma cheese comma beef comma and bread but you'd have to put the comma after cheese but you wouldn't after beef because it would be the second last item more examples we went running comma swiming comma and biking on the weekend she wore a red hat comma green scarf comma and black pants to the party again this comma here which we call the Oxford comma it is optional but I like to use it and if you're going to use the Oxford comma you should be consistent in your writing that's the most important so if you decide to use this comma then always use it in your entire whatever you're writing and that way you're concealing consistency with your style so let's do a bit of practice where do you need to place commas in these sentences we drank water beer and coffee at dinner with our friends he went swimming wrote a bike and play tennis at the sports camp the man was handsome tall and strong so I'll give you a second if you want to pause this and now I want to go over the answers with you so I'll grab my pen here first these are all in a list so we have to separate them he drew we drank water comma B R comma and coffee at dinner with our friends remember this comma here is optional but I like to use this comma the Oxford comma he went swimming comma wrote a bike comma and play tennis at the sports camp finally the man was handsome comma tall comma and strong okay so rule number two use a comma to separate independent clauses complete thoughts when they are joined by the following conjunctions for and nor but or yet and so so when these words are used as conjunctions usually in the middle of the sentence we have to use a comma to separate independent clauses now this fanboys is a way you can remember it so F for a and and nor B but o or Y yet s so fanboys okay the most common ones you'll run into and but or and so and note that the comma comes before the conjunction so some examples so this would be incorrect I want to quit my job but I need the money correct would be I want to quit my job comma but I need the money in this example there are two independent clauses I want to quit my job that is a complete thought an independent clause is a complete thought it's a sentence that can stand by itself I want to quit my job it's a complete sentence and the second independent clause the second complete thought I need the so these clauses are separated by a comma before the conjunction but because they are two independent clauses so more examples we can go to a basketball game on Saturday , or we can see that new James Bond movie again this is a full sentence of complete thought and this is well we can see that new James Bond movie it's also a complete thought so we need to have a comma before the conjunction I'm really tired today so I'm not going to go to the party tonight again this is a complete thought it's an independent clause and so is this I'm not going to go to the party tonight the weather was cold comma yet we had a great time ok so again we'll do some practice where do you need to place commas in these sentences Jack had an argument with Daniel and he got fired from his job I'm good at writing short stories yet I prefer reading novels it was raining so I took an umbrella so again let's get my little pen out Jack had an argument with Daniel comma and he got fired from his job again complete thought and this also a complete thought I'm good at writing short stories comma yet I prefer reading novels it was raining comma so I took an umbrella ok let's go on to the next one number three use a comma to separate a dependent clause which is an incomplete thought from an independent clause which is a complete thought so example when I move to Spain comma you can come visit me so when I moved to Spain is not an independent clause it's you can't just have a sentence that says when I move to Spain you need to have this independent clause when I move to Spain comma you can come visit me because you can come visit me is a complete thought if you your reports by Thursday , I'll give you Friday off again if you finish your reports by Thursday is a dependent clause it's an incomplete thought it needs this part of the sentence the second part to make sense so you have to put a comma here to separate the dependent clause and the independent clause if you finish your reports by Thursday comma I'll give you Friday off so again let's do some practice because he is only 17 he can't buy beer at the store if you keep procrastinating you'll never finish your work on time when I grow up I want to be a doctor so again we're starting with the dependent clause because he is only 17 comma he can't buy beer at the store if you keep procrastinating comma you'll never finish your work on time when I grow up comma I want to be a doctor okay now one thing that's important to note is this begins with the dependent clause okay all of these begin with the dependent clause I'll just put a D so we know dependent dependent and all of these on this side are the independent clauses now if you switched these around if you said I want to be a doctor when I grow up you would not need to put a comma you would not need to put a comma if it said he can't buy beer at the store because he is only 17 or you'll never finish your work on time if you keep procrastinating all of these sentences we can switch around but if we switch them around and start with the independent clause we do not need to put a comma as these words here because if and when they make it so we don't need to use that comma but when it begins with a dependent clause we have to use the comma okay rule number four use a comma to separate any word or phrase from the rest of the sentence that isn't essential to this sentences meaning so for example Jane my girl friend is coming to the party tonight this part here my girlfriend it doesn't change the rest of the sentence it's not important to the sentence so you could you could say Jane is coming to the party tonight but my girlfriend is just a little bit of extra information so we put Jane comma my girlf
Thanks for your comment John Guss, have a nice day.
- Cleo Mistrot, Staff Member
hi my name is alex welcome to this punctuation lesson on commas this will be very helpful to those of you who are just learning to write in the english language or especially those of you who are preparing to get into university okay so we have a couple of different rules they're actually more than right now we'll put them up we'll put the rest up later so let's look at the first rule of using a comma so here i have a sentence saying tom wanted to buy a pizza but he didn't have any money so this is an example where you have two independent clauses linked by a linking word in this case the word is but and when you have two independent clauses first of all what is an independent clause an independent clause is a sentence that expresses a complete thought so it's a full sentence so for example tom wanted to buy a pizza is one independent clause the other independent clause is he didn't have any money he didn't have any money we link those two independent clauses with one of these small words in this case we used but tom wanted to buy a pizza but he didn't have any money now anytime you have if you have a shorter sentence for example though you do not need to put the comma but it is um not exactly advisable but it's it's an option for you as well so for example if you had a sentence like i i was running but i fell or i was running and i fell down you wouldn't really need to put the comma after i was running comma and i felt because it's a shorter sentence but for longer sentences where you have two independent clauses you should put the comma especially when it's linked by one of these words of four and nor but or yet or so okay second example where you would use a comma is when you have a list of three or more items so let's say you're going to the grocery store i bought apples comma tomatoes comma and carrots okay just remember you put this the second comma in there as well when you have three or more items okay third rule similar to the second rule except now we're talking about adjectives so when you're describing someone and using two or more words to describe them uh or not not necessarily someone it can be something you can be describing a car or a table a house anything anything where you can use an adjective john is a smart comma happy man one adjective smart comma two adjectives man john is a smart happy man okay let's look at the fourth rule unless you are going i won't go now this is an example of a dependent clause coming before an independent clause so a dependent clause is one that is not a complete sentence it's not a complete thought it needs something else to help it become a full sentence so unless you are going does that sound like a full sentence to you no it's not a full sentence okay it begins with again unless you are going it's not a complete sentence needs something else right i won't go so if the sentence begins with the dependent clause unless you are going you would have to put a comma there i won't go okay another example would be um because it was raining i didn't go to school again because it was raining you need something else there right if you want to avoid using the comma in that case you could actually flip the sentence around and say i didn't go to school because it was raining but if the dependent clause comes first you have to put the comma there okay we'll look at the other rules in a second okay did you get all that so let's continue with our rules so rule five that we're looking at here is when you want to give extra information on someone in the middle of a sentence this is what we call an adjective clause in this case kind of like an unnecessary adjective clause we would say lucy we want to say more about lucy lucy comma who is a tall woman comma climbed the tree so we're giving extra information on lucy in the middle of the sentence lucy who is a tall woman climbed the tree let's look at rule six now this one is very simple when you are writing and you are quoting someone a direct quote you would have to put a comma so mark said comma i want some candy you're directly quoting mark now you must keep in mind this must be a direct quote for example you cannot put a comma you don't have to put a comma when you said mark said he wanted some candy you're not really quoting him you're just saying mark said he wanted some candy but unless if you are saying mark said i want some candy you must put that comma right there okay number seven now i put attention with an exclamation mark when you want to get someone's attention uh when you when in your writing if you're writing a story for example the example i have here is racing john is a very popular sport you want to get john's attention okay another example would be you sir are not fit to drive for example if you're a police officer pulling someone over so when you want to get someone's attention you have to put a comma before their name okay and finally when you are using a transition word uh transition words are something else you'll have to look up so words such as therefore or consequently you have to put a comma before that so the example i have is susie didn't study therefore comma she didn't pass a transition word okay susie didn't study because she didn't study or therefore she didn't pass comma after the transition word okay so to ensure that you have these rules down you can check out the quiz for this lesson at engvid.com as well as other videos thanks again for watching my name is alex take care you
Thanks ancrants9 your participation is very much appreciated
- Cleo Mistrot
About the author
I've studied forensic science at Mount Mary University in Milwaukee and I am an expert in economic systems. I usually feel cynical. My previous job was gas plant operator I held this position for 2 years, I love talking about hula hooping and magic tricks. Huge fan of Alice Cooper I practice snorkeling and collect comic books.
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